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ZTbe Separateb %ife. 



A BIBLICAL DEFENCE OF THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 



BY 

JOHN EDWIN WHITTEKER, D.D. 

Author of Analysis of the Augsburg Confession, with Explanatory Notes 

Baptism; Bible Biography; Comfort foe, Cross-Bearers, Church 

and State, and Other Short Treatises 



TOtb an ITntroDuctfon b£ 

THEODORE E. SCHMAUK. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

GENERAL COUNCIL PUBLICATION HOUSE 

1522 Arch Street 

1909 






COPYRIGHT, I909, 

By J. E. Whitteker. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CcDies Received 

JUN J 1909 

. Copvnifnt Entrv a 



Or 

2 



TO THE MEMORY OF 

CHARLES ALLEN FonDERSMITH, 

A MAN WHO LIVED IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST 

AND WHO DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO CHRIST-LIKE WORKS OF LOVE, 

THIS VOLUME IS 

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



INTRODUCTION. 



IT is possible to be an American without belief in the principle for 
which our forefathers laid down their lives; and without conform- 
ing our faith or practice to the written and unwritten Constitution. 
Such Americans, retaining and prizing the name, have lost the substance. 
Thus it is possible to call one's self a Christian without accepting 
the central principle of Christianity. The principle of Christianity is 
Christ, and to be a Christian is to accept Christ in the sense in His 
own interpretation of Himself. His Gospel to man is not one of the 
fatherhood, or of the brotherhood; but it is the offering of Himself 
for us that, through Him, there may be divine and human fellowship. 
This generation, like its predecessors, has sought to find the 
essence of Christianity in His life and deeds, rather than in His 
death and merits. In this book our author examines the question 
anew. In a series of splendidly luminous character pictures, on the 
ground of the actual records of His life, we see what is the funda- 
mental principle of this Man, Separated from all the World, but 
claiming attention of every growing mind. No matter what we believe, 
or in what sense we are Christians, the great fact about this book is 
its absence of sentimentalism, and its search for a simple, lucid, 



INTRODUCTION. 

adequate, and final explanation of Him, Who " the Holiest among the 
Mighty," and " the Mightiest among the Holy," as Richter says, " has 
lifted with His pierced hand empires off their hinges, has turned 
the streams of centuries out of their channels, and still governs the 
ages." 

THEODORE E. SCHMAUK. 



PREFACE 



WE live in critical times— times of critical tests: microscopic 
scrutinies, lime-light exposures, X-ray studies. Men have 
become skeptical along all lines of antiquities; they refuse 
to accept the findings of a former age. World-history has been 
rewritten; world-science has been revised; world-customs have been 
searched out — they have given to concurrent literature a new sense. 
The scrap-heap of human theories, human philosophies, human guesses, 
has grown to significant size of late. And every man whose work 
has added to its monumental proportions is as proud of it as if he 
had produced a masterpiece of art. 

The realm of religion has not escaped the critical eye. The horizon 
of Natural Theology has been scanned to its utmost limits : the field 
of Christian Evidences has been searched as never before. Old 
systems of doctrine have been discarded, supplemented, or recast: 
the very Bible has been dragged through the fires. Men seem to be 
infected with a sort of iconoclastic mania: an incendiary spirit has 
seized them, and nothing satisfies them but a universal blaze. They 
have no reverence for the settled certitudes of Scripture: to them 
there are no certitudes. They have no respect for the doctrinal 
developments of the past : to them there is no such thing as the 
unfolding of religious truth. They have laid the axe to the root of 
the tree: the keen edge has gone to the heart of it. 

We are told that history repeats itself: there is ample proof of it. 
The Son of Man moved among men in humble, lowly state. The 
Scribes and Pharisees became His bitter foes. They watched Him; 
they tried to entrap Him in His talk; they plotted against Him: at 



PREFACE. 

last, they nailed Him to the accursed tree. They were Christ's critics ! 
But the common people heard Him gladly. To-day, men are doing 
the same — the very same in essence and spirit. They catch at every 
possible quibble: they pervert His speech, wresting the inner thought 
from it. They put on Him mock royal robes when they praise His 
virtues; they crucify Him, bury Him, put an everlasting seal upon 
His grave, by denying His Godhead and giving but a mortal limit to 
His life. But in spite of these modern Scribes and Pharisees, the 
great mass of Church people gladly learn of Him and find in Him 
their rest and peace. 

It is for such people that the succeeding chapters are put into 
print: it is not for the critics. Ephraim is joined to idols; he hath 
mixed himself among the heathen and hath learned their works: the 
injunction is, " Let him alone." But those who believe in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, need to be 
established in their Christian faith and fortified in their Christian 
life. It was with this design that the following series of sermons 
was prepared and preached at consecutive church services, and are 
now published that a larger congregation may read them to their 
spiritual profit. If the reader finds that strength and assurance in 
their perusal which the writer found in their preparation, the work, 
wrought out in a busy pastorate, will have accomplished the purpose 
that inspired it. And to God, the only wise, be glory through Jesus 
Christ, for ever, and ever. Amen. 

JOHN E. WHITTEKER. 

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 
Ash Wednesday, 1909. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
The Separated Life 1 1 

CHAPTER II. 
The Self-Existent One 20 

CHAPTER III. 
Prophecies and Promises 30 

CHAPTER IV. 
Omnipotence and Omnipresence 40 

CHAPTER V. 
Special Exercise of Divine Attributes 50 

CHAPTER VI. 
Special Claims and Acts 60 

CHAPTER VII. 
Homage and Honors 69 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Fact of Miracle 78 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Saving Might 87 

CHAPTER X. 
The Central Life 97 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Risen Christ 107 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Ascended Lord 117 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Enthroned King 127 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Glorious Advent 137 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Eternal Judge 147 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Son of Man 157 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Son of God 167 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
In His Name 177 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Body of Christ 187 

The Conclusion 197 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

EVERYTHING in this world admits of classifica- 
tion: everything in earth and sea and air has 
its appointed place, its setting according to its 
nature: nothing stands alone. Birds and beasts, 
rocks and trees: these are divided and subdivided 
according to common qualities and put in separate 
catalogues. The man skilled in science knows the 
setting of each, because he knows its nature. As a 
rule, every man of common knowledge knows their 
place; for there are marked distinctions in their 
formation or their mode of life. And so, in all the 
universe, there is nothing that stands apart. 

This fact holds good in the world of men. They 
are classified according to nationalities : they are sub- 
divided into trades, professions, offices, and the like. 
There are sages, scientists, philosophers, warriors, 
statesmen, priests: classification everywhere. And 
in it all, no one man stands alone: he is one of a 
multitude. This holds good in all the history of the 
human race. 

There is a notable exception to this universal rule: 
the name of Jesus stands alone — His name is above 
every name. He was separate from sinners : aye, 
He was separate from saints. It was written of 
Him, and of no one else, " He did no sin, neither 1 Peter 2: 22. 
was guile found in his mouth." As sinners cannot 
be classed with saints; so saints cannot be classed 



12 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

with Him in the conduct of their lives. It is 
this separateness alike from saints and sinners that 
makes His life unique. He does not stand like a 
mountain height, towering a little above the peaks 
round about it: He is like a sun among spheres — a 
class by itself, the only one in it. There was an 
absolute aloneness to His earth-life. 

This is already indicated in the announcement of 
His birth : " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, 
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow 

Luke 1 : 35. thee ; therefore also that holy thing which shall 
be born of thee shall be called The Son of God." 
Hence, too, that marvellous salutation of Elizabeth, 
who spake as she was moved by the Holy Ghost: 

Luke i:43. " And whence is this to me, that the mother of 
my Lord should come to me?" The Son of God: 
conceived by the Holy Ghost: born of the Virgin 
Mary: Lord of the human race — the advent of no 
other mortal is marked by terms such as these. 
And of none other was it ever said, " The word 

John i: h. was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace 
and truth." This absolute purity of birth as well as 
distinct ascendency of life, is ascribed only to Christ. 

If we leap the years of private life and find Him 
moving down to Jordan's bank, the same wonderful 
truth confronts us. John the Baptist shrank from 
the holy duty that was set before him: "I have 
Matt. 3: 14. need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to 
me?" And yet, Jesus Himself assures us that of 
those that were born of woman, there was not a 
greater than John the Baptist. It was not mere 



THE SEPARATED LIFE. 13 

sensitiveness of nature that led John to hold back 
from the duties of his office. He was ever bold to 
speak and to act, when a sense of duty drove him to 
it. His very boldness cost him his life. But it was 
his consciousness of the fact that He who thus pre- 
sented Himself, was none other than the Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sin of the world; it was 
his conviction that those who sought baptism should 
confess their sins and bring forth fruits meet for 
repentance: it was these two conflicting facts that 
set Jesus alone among men, and above the needs of 
baptism as John administered it. 

And so, in His baptism there was no confession 
of sins on the part of Christ ; for there were no sins 
to confess : there was no repentance on His part ; for 
there was nothing of which to repent. There was 
an appointed official act, with the seal of the 
Almighty upon it : for the heavens were opened ; and 
the Spirit of God descended like a clove and lighted 
upon Him; and a voice from heaven said, "This 
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Matt. 8: 16, 17. 
In all the years of John's ministry, in all the centuries 
of God's covenant with His ancient people, in all 
the days of the Apostles, and of the Fathers and 
Brethren to this present time, there has been no 
baptism like that of Jesus, in kind and outcome. 
Here, again, He is separate from sinners, separate 
from saints: in His baptism, He stands alone. 

The same thought is strikingly presented in the 
Institution of the Holy Supper: "This is my Matt. 26: 26,28 
body;" "This is my blood." Who of the chosen 
Twelve would have dared to utter words like these? 



14 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Who of men, to-day, would take them upon their 
lips and apply them to themselves? What blas- 
phemy it would be: what sacrilege against God's 
holy institute! But when Jesus speaks them, men 
stand in awe : there is a sacredness and a solemnity, 
in thought and tone and heavenly intent, that make 
them unparalleled in all His utterances. Aside 
from all doctrinal significance that inhere in these 
words, " My Body, My Blood " — whether men 
teach transubstantiation, the real presence, or find in 
them only a figure of speech: aside from all this, 
these are words which no mere man may attach to 
his own name. A devout man would be shocked 
at the thought of it : a profane man would shrink 
from so great sacrilege. And so, once again Jesus 
is separate from sinners, separate from saints : the 
Holy Supper classes Him alone. 

His relation to the Father is a peculiar one. No 
one ever held fellowship with God so intimate as 
did He. This is indicated in a general way when 
Jesus says, " No man knoweth the Son but the 
Matt. ii: 27. Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, 
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will 
reveal him." But the chief distinction in this 
respect, the complete separateness of His life from 
that of men of every rank and name, is brought out 
most strikingly when His personal relation with the 
Father becomes His theme. Here He stands alone 
— consciously, deliberately alone. 

The words, "My Father," were upon His lips with 
each passing event. He never said, " Our Father:" 



THE SEPARATED LIFE. 15 

He shared the peculiar personal honor with none. 
He taught His disciples to pray, " Our Father;" but 
He never prayed it. And so marked was the dis- 
tinction in His own mind, and so essential was its 
nature, that after His resurrection, He commissioned 
Mary with the significant message, "Go to my John 20:17. 
brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my 
Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your 
God." They were His brethren: He here acknow- 
ledges the relationship. And yet, He sets Himself 
apart from them : He puts them in a class by them- 
selves, and Himself alone. In all the relations of 
this life, He and His disciples were a unit ; but in His 
relation to God, there was a special personal element 
in which they did not share. He could say — but 
they could not say it — " I and my Father are one." 
In this personal, essential relation, they had neither 
part nor lot. When He said, " My Father," He said 
it in a sense that separated Him from every relation 
of this mortal life. 

As a Teacher, Jesus stood alone — separate from 
the teachers of all times. The people were aston- 
ished at His doctrine ; for He taught with authority, 
and not as the scribes. The universal verdict was, 
" Never man spake like this man." In the Sermon 
on the Mount, He quoted the sayings of men of 
olden time and set His positive commandment over 
against and above them. The provisional enact- 
ments of Moses were superceded by the fixed prin- 
ciples which He came to declare. The traditions of 
the elders, the interpretations of scribes and Phari- 



16 1HE SEPARATED LIFE. 

sees — these, too, were set aside; and in their place 
was put His own divine message. 

And to emphasize His authority, He made Himself 
the supreme Arbiter in each case : " I say unto you!" 
He met every issue in that direct, personal, authori- 
tative way. His word was decisive: it had the 
judicial tone; it might not be questioned or set at 
naught. In all such instances, He did not even 
base His claim upon Scripture, but upon the legiti- 
mate exercise of an inherent right. Whether He 
calmed the sea or cast out devils, cleansed the 
Temple or taught the people — the method was the 
same : the I — the self -existent, all-sufficient One — 
stood forth alone in word and act. Everywhere, 
He put Himself in God's place. He spake with 
God's authority, wrought with God's power, moved 
in God's might: He did it in His own name. As 
with the authority, so with the honor : no man had a 
share. In all the ages, no usurper, no autocrat, no 
tyrant, ever claimed as much as He: He so gentle 
that little children sought His sweet embrace. It all 
reminds us of that original creative act, which the 
Evangelist boldly ascribes to Him : " He spake, and 
it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." 

The most marked particular, however, from the 
Scripture point of view, in which Jesus stands, dis- 
tinctively alone, alike from sinners and saints, is the 
absolute sinlessness of His nature as exhibited in 
His prayers. There is nothing that so reveals 
character as the thoughts that well up fresh from 
the soul and are poured out in purest measure at the 



THE SEPARATED LIFE. 17 

throne of grace. Prayer is the autograph of the 
heart: it writes, in plainest terms, the feelings that 
are uppermost there. The hypocrite is known by his 
prayer: so is the man that is truly penitent. The 
man that stood on the street-corner, so that everyone 
who came from the four winds could see him — the 
spirit of that man's prayer was fully manifest. The 
man who enters his closet and shuts the door, and 
there prays in secret : that man does not cover his 
sins, but lays them bare; and he receives the sincere 
desire of his heart. He who prays in sincerity, 
prays also in truth. 

Jesus was a man of prayer. And His prayer was 
not only distinct from that of hypocrites : it was 
separate from that of saints. Abraham took upon 
him to speak unto the Lord; but in doing so, he Gen. 18:27. 
confessed that he was but dust and ashes. Jacob 
was in sore straits and called upon the name of the 
Lord ; but his humble acknowledgment was, " I am 
not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all Gen. 82: 10. 
the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant." 
The Psalms of David overflow with penitence: he 
makes the general acknowledgment, "If thou, Lord, 
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall Psaim 130 : s. 
stand;" while in the greatest of penitential Psalms, 
he confesses on his own part, "My sin is ever Psaim 51 : s. 
before me." Daniel set his face unto the Lord to 
seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and 
sackcloth and ashes; and he made confession for 
himself and his people, " We have sinned, and have 
committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and Dan. 9: 5,7. 
have rebelled : O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto 



18 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

thee, but unto us confusion of faces." Simon Peter 
fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, " Depart from me, 

Luke5:8. for I am a sinful man, O Lord." The publican 
smote upon his breast and the cry went up from his 

Luke 18: 13. sin-rent soul, " God, be merciful to me a sinner." 
The thief on the cross prefaced his plea for mercy 
with the confession, " We receive the due reward 

Luke28:4i. of our deeds." And the Church, from the be- 
ginning, has made the confession of sins the 
prerequisite of forgiving grace, " If we say that we 

uohni:8,9. have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth 
is not in us: if we confess our sins, He is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness." 

But Jesus in the face of His own teachings and 
the example of God's saints in every age : Jesus 
stood before men with the challenge, " Which of 

John 8: 46. you convinceth me of sin?" In other words, He 
made Himself the exception of all time. He taught 

Matt. 6: 12. His disciples to pray, "Forgive us our tres- 
passes ;" but He nowhere prays, " Forgive me my 
trespasses:" He did not come. under the common 
Christian rule. He prayed for His enemies, " Father, 

Luke 23: 34. forgive them;" but He nowhere prays, " Father, 
forgive me." He prayed on the mountains and in 
the secret place ; He prayed before the multitude and 
in the circle of His disciples: and everywhere He 
looked the Father in the face, equal, co-eternal, yet 
distinct — the sinless One. None but He, of equal 
majesty and glory and might, would venture to lift 
up his eyes to heaven and utter those sublime words 
that fell from His lips just before He went forth to 



THE SEPARATED LIFE. 19 

die, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine 
own self, with the glory which I had with thee John 17:5, 
before the world was." That were the limit of 
human self-assurance ! It is true, in Gethsemane He 
cast Himself upon His face, and the cry went up 
from His agonized soul, " O my Father, if it be Matt. 26: 39. 
possible, let this cup pass from me;" but there was 
no acknowledgment of sin: it was the weight of 
human woe resting upon His heart. 

Is there no significance in all this — this separate- 
ness, at every point, in the life of Christ? The 
Scripture declares, "All have sinned and come Rom. 3: 2.3. 
short of the glory of God." But here is a man 
who says, I have not sinned! Here is a man who 
says, The glory of God is mine! Jesus nowhere 
makes confession of sin. But He teaches His 
disciples to pray, " Forgive :" He commends the 
publican for the penitent acknowledgment of his 
sinful estate. And He who thus sets Himself 
apart from sinners and saints — HE says of Himself, 
" I am meek and lowly in heart." 

These are facts in the life of Christ — admitted 
facts, and there is but one inference to be drawn 
from them: it is the inference of that disciple who 
leaned on Jesus' breast, " This is the true God 1 John 5 : 20. 
and eternal Life." 



20 THE SEPARATED LlFE. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE. 

A SELF-EXISTENT being is divine. It is not 
a creature with a dependent life — a life 
whose beginnings lie in some other life, a 
life whose support is derived from some outside 
spring of life: it is a life that subsists of itself, 
from everlasting to everlasting the same. It is the 
life of God: it is the life of Christ; for Christ is 
God. So the Scriptures declare; so the Church 
teaches; so we believe. 

No man has ever claimed self-existence — no one 
but Jesus Christ. The Christian Scientist may 
scorn, in a measure, natural processes; but he con- 
fesses his inability to live above them. And while 
he hopes that coming generations, by some sort of 
evolution, may outgrow the ordinary human agen- 
cies, yet he acknowledges that God is the strength 
of his life. There have been false prophets in all 
ages; but none ever claimed to reach the point of 
self-existence : the falseness of their position would 
have been the more manifest. 

A self-existent unit, indivisible and indestructible, 
which is and which was and which is to come — we 
mortals know that our nature falls infinitely short 
of it. And if some man should claim, " I am the 
self-existent One," we would know at once that some 
evil blast had swept over his spirit and made ship- 
wreck of his mental part. The thing is so pre- 
posterous, so utterly unnatural, that a man would 



THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE. 21 

have to imagine he was God before he could claim to 
be a self-existent essence. And so, in the whole 
range of history, no sane man, no prophet false or 
true, ever set himself up as a being beyond all 
dependencies, human or divine. That claim is unique 
in the case of Christ. And that is what makes His 
case so marvellously significant; that is what makes 
His life the separated life. He made Himself of no 
reputation; yet He says in fact, I am the self- 
existent One. 

The whole Gospel History goes upon the pre- 
sumption that Jesus Christ was the self-existent 
One : it is implied everywhere. The beloved disciple 
makes it a theme ; and he does so because it was one 
of the leading themes of his Master. In groping 
with finite words to express infinite realities, he 
says, "In him was life; and the life was the John i: 4. 
light of men." These words can have but one 
meaning. To say that a man has life — common, 
natural life, when everyone knows he is alive, is 
sheer nonsense. But to say that Christ is the life, 
the source and power of life, is to declare His self- 
existence — the pre-existent life of all that lives. 
The same inference is to be drawn from the words 
of Jesus, when he reproves the Jews for their 
caviling spirit, "As the Father hath life in him- John 5: 26 
self; so hath he given to the Son to have life in 
himself." The same life that is in the Father is in 
the Son: each has life in Himself. The Father is 
the self -existent One: the Son has the same self- 
existence. 



22 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

But we are not left to mere inference — the mere 
logic of language: we have the logic of fact. We 
have the judgment of Jesus expressed in clearest 
terms; expressed in so many ways and under such 
varying conditions, that the sum-total is over- 
whelming in the exactness of the truth He so evi- 
dently taught. At the beginning of His ministry, 
He made that scourge of small cords and drove 
from the Temple those who engaged in traffic there. 
And when the Jews demanded a sign to establish 
His authority for such sweeping measures, this was 
His answer : " Destroy this temple, and in three 
John 2: 19. days I will raise it up." He spake of the temple 
of His body. He who called others back to life, 
came forth from the grave by His own almighty 
power : death had no dominion over Him ; He could 
not be holden of it. As the self -existent One, He 
passed by His personal omnipotence through death 
into life. 

This was one of His underlying thoughts when 
He justified His doctrine before the Jews and de- 
clared Himself to be the self-existent, ever-existent 
John 8: 58. One, " Before Abraham was, I am!" It was the 
name by which God revealed Himself to Moses — 
the name which was expressive of His everlasting 
attribute. It was a capital crime to usurp that 
name ; but Jesus boldly claimed it. Hence they took 
up stones to cast at Him: they would carry out, to 
the letter, the severe sentence of the law. 

There is still more explicit evidence. In that 
beautiful discourse where He calls Himself the Good 
Shepherd and gives the comforting assurance, " I 



THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE. 23 

lay down my life that I might take it again;" He Johnio: 17. 
puts His declaration beyond all dispute: He makes 
a claim which declares, without qualification, His 
self-existence, when He concludes, " I have power John 10 : is 
to lay it down and I have power to take it again." 
This is God's " Yea and Amen." And it is this yea 
and amen to which the Epistle to the Hebrews testi- 
fies, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to- Het>. is: 8. 
day, and for ever " — the self -existent One, the ever- 
existent One. 

The self -existence of Christ implies two things, 
His pre-existence and His post-existence. As to 
His existence after this life, there is no doubt or 
denial except on the part of the materialist, who 
claims that the mind emanates from the body and 
therefore dies with it. But the mass of humanity, 
heathen as well as Christian, believes that the life of 
the soul extends beyond the grave. It is only when 
much learning, of a certain sort, hath unfixed the 
pillars of a sane science and hath made men mad 
along philosophic lines, that reason, like a house 
divided against itself, totters and tumbles to the dust. 

The doctrine of pre-existence, like that of the 
immortality of the soul, has no religious limit. The 
sages of old taught it with respect to themselves; 
while the entire theosophic system, with other 
Oriental cults, makes it one of its basic principles. 
But their notion of pre-existence has nothing in 
common with the claims of Christ. The pre-exist- 
ence which they taught was the evolution of life 
through countless incarnations, to end at last in the 



24 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

total loss of personal existence by absorption into 
deity: the very reverse of pantheism, which puts 
God into everything; while this resolves everything 
into God : thus, in the end, God would be the one 
all-absorbing essence. But that was not Christ's 
idea of pre-existence : the pre-existence of Christ is 
based on His own eternal self-existence, unchanging 
and unchangeable. 

The evidence of Jesus is overwhelming on this 
point. In that conversation with Nicodemus, He 
made the astonishing statement, " No man hath 

John s : 13. ascended up to heaven, but he that came down 
from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in 
heaven " — words which would have no sense if He 
were mortal like ourselves. This conviction was so 
positive in Christ's case, that He repeatedly gives 
expression to the same thought. And the serious- 
ness with which He utters it, the vast soul-interests 
which He stakes upon it, the earnestness with which 
He presses it, create a like conviction within our 
own hearts. As with the Apostles, so with us: we 
cannot get away from it ; we will not part with it : no 
counter effect of philosophic thought can move us 
from our faith and the well-founded hope which it 
inspires. 

Hear His words — and who would venture to 
question His sincerity of heart : " I came down from 

John 6 : 38. heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of 
him that sent me." The disciples of Christ made 
Him the model of their lives; but not one of them ; 
ever made such a claim as Jesus here makes. Peter 



THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE. 25 

was the boldest: he tried to walk on the water as 
his Master did : but he never said, " I came down 
from heaven " — he claimed naught beyond poor 
human nature. What he said and did was in His 
Master's name. 

In like spirit and tone were those perplexing words 
of Christ, " I am the living bread which came John 6: 51,57. 
down from heaven : As the living Father sent me, 
and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even 
he shall live by me." And when many of His 
disciples were confounded at these words and said, 
" This is an hard saying, who can hear it?" Jesus 
answered, " Doth this offend you? What and if John 6:60-62. 
ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was 
before ?" And in that sharp dispute with the Phari- 
sees, He said, "If God were your Father, ye would John 8: 42. 
love me ; for I proceeded forth and came from God : 
neither came I of myself, but he sent me." And so 
we believe as St. John believed when the Holy Ghost 
brought Jesus' words to his remembrance, "He John 13:8. 
was come from God, and went to God." 

The same confident tone runs through all the 
declarations of Christ: a perfect agreement marks 
His utterances. He states His position; He stands 
by it; He stakes all upon it. In that last discourse, 
He sets forth the completed round of His eternal 
existence, " I came forth from the Father and am John 16:28, 30 
come into the world ; again I leave the world and go 
to the Father." The disciples understood it, and 
they said, " We believe that thou earnest forth from 
God !" And when He had thus brought them to the 
confession of their faith in Him as the pre-existent 



26 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

One, He had accomplished His present purpose : He 
had brought them to the point from which they had 
a clear vision of the eternity of His being ; and they 
were now prepared to be witnesses of the divinity 
of His nature as well as of the perfect humanity of 
His life. He could say of the work already per- 
formed in their hearts — the work of conviction as to 
His Person, "It is finished:" nothing remained but 
the great sacrificial act. 

There is one more scene — the most sublime in all v 
His life before He went forth to die. It was that 
solemn hour when nature slept: the midnight hush 
was brooding over earth — poor sin-stained earth. 
The faithful band drew close about their Master: 
the last word, " I have overcome," was echoing in 
their hearts. A solemn stillness then: who but He 
would dare to break it! It was no earth-scene — it 
was all divine : the Father on the throne, the Son at 
the footstool. And as He lifted up His eyes to 
heaven, thus he prayed, " Father, the hour is come ; 
glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." 
And then there welled up from His heart that 
wondrous prayer, the most sublime that ever rose as 
incense to the skies. And among its most sublime 
utterances were words like these, " And now, O 
John 17:5, 6, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, 
8 ' with the glory which I had with thee before the 

world was : I have manifested thy name unto the 
men which thou gavest me : I have given unto them 
the words which thou gavest me ; and they have 
received them, and have known surely that I came 



THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE. 27 

out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst 
send me." Is it possible that men can see in these 
words nothing but sweet sentiment — the poesy of 
speech! Is it possible that any man, with the love 
of God in his heart, can read this High-priest prayer, 
and not be convinced of the divinity of Christ ! 

It is written of John the Baptist that he was filled 
with the Holy Ghost. John's witness, therefore, 
should carry weight: " This was he of whom I John i: 15, 
spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before 
me, for He was before me." It is an admitted 
fact that John was born before Jesus. There is, 
therefore, but one interpretation to these words : 
John refers to Jesus' pre-existence. And this 
becomes the more evident when he says else- 
where, "He that cometh from above is above Johns: si. 
all : he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh 
of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is 
above all." And John spake these words to draw 
the contrast between himself and Christ : he spake 
them when his disciples came with the message that 
all men had gone after Christ ; and he met them with 
that statement which marks his humility, " He must 
increase, but I must decrease." The man of humble 
heart acknowledges Christ : the man puffed up with 
intellectual pride, denies Him. 

The Apostle Paul — he that was born out of due 
time — makes the pre-existence of Christ, directly or 
indirectly, his constant theme. The first specific 
reference dates back to the wilderness life. He tells 



28 . THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

how the Israelites were under the cloud and passed 
through the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual 
meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink. 
And then comes the statement that is marvellous in 
the extreme — one that should silence forever all 
dispute, " For they drank of that spiritual Rock 

i cor. io:4. that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." 
He speaks in like tone when he has the Resur- 
rection for his theme, " The first man is of the earth 

i cor. is: 47. earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven." 
Adam had no pre-existence — he was a creature of 
earth: Christ had a pre-existence — He is the Lord 
from heaven. Such is St. Paul's vision of the 
eternal existence of Christ. And when he would 
picture the self-sacrifice of that devoted life, so that 
the people to whom he wrote might be stirred to 
liberality of heart, he adds intensity to his plea when 
he says, " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 

ii cor. 8 .- 9. Christ that, though he was rich, yet for your 
sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty 
might be rich." And elsewhere it is stated that 
God's purpose and grace were " given us in Christ 

ii Tim. 1:9,10 Jesus before the world began; but is now made 
manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus 
Christ." It was purposed in Christ there; it was 
performed in Christ here: the same Christ — there 
and here. 

It is upon this cumulative testimony that we be- 
lieve Jesus when He says, " Before Abraham was, I 
am " — the eternal, self-existent One. And it is these 
facts that give force to His question when He asks 



THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE. 29 

the Pharisees, " What think ye of Christ : whose 
son is he?" And when they confess that He is the 
Son of David, then comes that question which they 
could not answer, " How then doth David in Spirit 
call him Lord?" " If David call him Lord, how Matt.22:4i^4 
is he his son?" And the Pharisees of to-day are 
dumb before that question: they cannot answer it. 
It is only when we acknowledge Him to be " The 
Root and Offspring of David," that we can know 
Him to be at once both David's Lord and David's 
Son — God and Man : " God of the substance of The 
the Father, begotten before the worlds ; and Man creed, 
of the substance of His mother, born in the world." 
This is plain speech: this is no proverb. If we are 
truly His disciples, we understand it : if we are truly 
His disciples, we believe and confess it. 

The eternal existence of Christ, therefore, is the 
evident teaching of Scripture. Our Lord every- 
where claimed it: His disciples everywhere built 
upon it: the Church everywhere confesses it. Let 
us not be deceived by vain philosophies : let us not 
be turned aside from the faith once delivered to the 
saints. Let us stake all, if need be, upon the truth 
and promise of Christ, "I came forth from the John 16: 28 
Father and am come into the world; again I leave 
the world and go to the Father." 



30 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

CHAPTER III. 

PROPHECIES AND PROMISES. 

THE spirit of prophecy is not a common human 
gift : it does not belong to the sphere of finite 
life; it is, in no proper sense, a part of it. 
There is the logic of events — the signs of the times. 
The man of a wise and an understanding heart may 
be able to point out probabilities; and history may 
substantiate the correctness of his judgment. But 
that is not prophecy: it is but the foresight and 
insight of consistent thought : the spirit of prophecy 
is not there. 

The prophetic spirit is the direct impulse of God : 

ii peter i:2i. " Holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost." The prophet could say — and no 
other man can say it except in a secondary sense, 

nsam. 28:2. " The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his 
word was in my tongue." The prophet never spoke 
in his own name : " Thus saith the Lord," was his 
invariable acknowledgment. It is only in a mediate 
sense, therefore, that the minister of Christ may 
use the prophetic tongue : and even then he speaks in 
Jesus' name. 

But when Jesus stood up in the synagogue and 
read from the Book of Prophecy, " The Spirit of 
the Lord is upon me ;" He closed the book and said, 

Luke4: 18,21 " This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." 
It was a strong claim that He made. No wonder 
the people rose up in wrath, and thrust Him out of 
the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which 



PROPHECIES AND PROMISES. 31 

the city was built, that they might cast Him down 
headlong. He had spoken blasphemies — unless He 
were, indeed, that prophet, the promised Christ. If, 
therefore, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, it 
was not a lying spirit: it was the Spirit of truth. 
And so His prophecies and promises were words of 
truth. 

A threefold office marks the ministry of Christ: 
He is our Prophet, Priest and King. It is the 
prophetic office, the prophesying part of it, which 
we shall now examine. And as prophecy was fol- 
lowed by fulfilment, in all cases where fulfilment 
pertained to our past, we have the positive proof that 
He was gifted with the prophetic spirit; the proof, 
too, that it was inherent in His nature, since He 
exercised it in His own name. 

Many of His prophecies were given to comfort 
His disciples; to fill them with courage in the dark 
hour when all seemed lost ; and, at the same time, to 
settle their faith in Him as God come down to save. 
And so, when He told them that He was about to 
return to the Father who had sent Him, and gave 
them the promise of the Holy Ghost, He said, " And 
now, I have told you before it come to pass, that, Johnw: 29. 
when it is come to pass, ye might believe." The 
prince of this world was come; the power of dark- 
ness would triumph : the disciples needed some such 
assurance to keep them steadfast until the calamities 
were overpast and their eyes should meet the glories 
of the resurrection light. 

The prophetic word was spoken, sometimes, to 



32 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

meet the cavilings of His enemies, but chiefly for 
the comfort and encouragement of His disciples. 
An instance of the former is furnished us when the 
scribes and Pharisees came to Him and said, 
" Master, we would see a sign from thee." He 
reproved them as an evil generation ; and then came 
the answer, " There shall no sign be given to it, but 
Matt. 12:38-40 the sign of the prophet Jonas; For as Jonas 
was three days and three nights in the whale's belly ; 
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three 
nights in the heart of the earth." There is but one 
interpretation to be put upon these words : They 
were a prophecy of His rest in the grave. 

The prophecies in which we are especially inter- 
ested are those that pertain to the closing scenes of 
His earthly life. They are definite ; they are minute ; 
they cannot, by argument or inference, be set aside. 
When Simon Peter gave the keynote that has been 
sounded through the Church in all ages, " Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God;" the record 
is that " From that time forth, began Jesus to show 

Matt. i6:2i. unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jeru- 
salem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief 
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again 
the third day." And as He came down from the Mount 
of Transfiguration, He charged the chosen three, 

Matt. 17: 9. " Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man 
be risen again from the dead." While they were up 
in Galilee, His words were more specific, " The Son 

Matt.i7:22,23 of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men; 
and they shall kill him ; and the third day he shall be 



PROPHECIES AND PROMISES. 33 

raised again." As the time drew near, the account 
goes more into special incidents, " Behold, we go 
up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be Matt.20: is, 19 
betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; 
and they shall condemn him to death, and shall 
deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, 
and to crucify; and the third day he shall rise again." 
After he spake the parable of the last judgment, He 
said to His disciples, " Ye know that after two Matt. 26: 2. 
days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of Man 
is betrayed to be crucified." And as they went out 
to the Mount of Olives, He finds the fulfilment of 
the words of the prophet, " I will smite the Shep- Matt.26:si,82 
herd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered 
abroad." And then follows His own prophetic pro- 
mise, " But after I am risen again, I will go before 
you into Galilee." 

A remarkable series of prophecies are grouped 
here. They begin with the bare announcement of 
His sufferings, death, and resurrection. The be- 
trayal is next added, and the length of time He will 
rest in the grave. The acts of the chief priests and 
scribes now enter into the account, with the mocking 
and scourging and crucifying on the part of the 
Gentiles. At the Passover Feast, He points out the 
one who shall betray Him : and on the way to Olives, 
He announces the fact that He will go before His 
disciples into Galilee, and that He will meet them 
there. And all this was fulfilled to the letter : every- 
thing came to pass absolutely as He had prefigured it. 

There are other prophecies which merit at least a 
passing notice. When His disciples pointed with 



34 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

pride to the Temple, Jesus said, " Verily I say unto 

Matt. 24:2. you, there shall not be left here one stone upon 
another, that shall not be thrown down." And then 
follows that terrible picture, when the abomination 
of desolation shall stand in the Holy Place. On 
the Triumphal March, as He drew near the city, He 
wept over it, saying, " If thou hadst known, even 

Lukei9: 41-44. thou, at least in this thy day the things that belong 
unto thy peace: but now they are hid from thine 
eyes." And then, with prophetic view, He sees the 
enemy close in upon the city — casting a trench 
round about it, compassing and keeping it on every 
side: and finally the battering down of its mighty 
walls, and the terrible carnage that followed — the 
like, not from that day to this, no, nor ever shall be. 
How soon — less than forty years — this prophecy 
had its awful fulfilment! And when He spoke, 
there was no sign of it : it was a prophecy, not only 
of the improbable, but of the apparently impossible. 
There are prophecies yet to be fulfilled: the 
prophecies with respect to the second Advent. The 
prophecy that the sun shall be darkened and the 

Matt.24: 29-si. moon shall not give her light; the prophecy that 
the Son of Man shall come in the clouds of heaven, 
with power and great glory; the prophecy that He 
shall send His angels with a great sound of a trum- 
pet, and they shall gather together His elect from 

Matt.25: 31-46. the four winds ; the prophecy of judgment and 
rewards based upon it : these are yet to come. And 
we are certain that they shall take place, because He 
who spake these prophecies is the One who is and 
who was and who is to come : the eternal ages are 



PROPHECIES AND PROMISES. 35 

ever-present to His eyes. He who sits in heavenly 
places and who speaks from the very throne, " I am 
he that liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am Rev. 1 ; la 
alive for evermore:" He is the omniscient One as 
well as the ever-existent One. Time and eternity 
stand open to His view: His prophecies spoken in 
His own name are proof of it. He does not say, 
" Thus saith the Lord :" He says, " I say unto you." 
The denial of His prophetic gift would lead to the 
denial of every Scripture statement : it would trans- 
form the Bible into a dead sea of fable, with neither 
life nor the possibility of life in it. 

If we turn to the promises of Christ, the same 
almightiness lies back of every one of them : promises 
which have a prophetic side; promises which reach 
into the eternal world for their fulfilment. He 
promised His disciples that they should sit on twelve 
thrones; and that those who had forsaken all for 
His name's sake, should receive an hundredfold, Matt.i9:28,29. 
and inherit everlasting life. An everlasting promise 
must find its fulfilment in an everlasting God : it can 
find it only in Him whose name is above every name. 
Put this promise on human lips, and the folly of it 
becomes apparent. But when Jesus speaks, the soul 
is filled with the sublimest trust as to the fulfilment 
of every jot and tittle. 

Jesus forewarned His disciples as to the many 
calamities that should come : false Christs should 
arise; nation should be arrayed against nation, and 
kingdom against kingdom; there should be earth- 
quakes and famines and pestilences. And then came 



36 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

the prophecy with the promise, " But before all these, 
Luke 2i: 12-15 they shall lay hands on you, and persecute you, 
delivering you up to the synagogues, and into 
prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for 
my name's sake. Settle it therefore in your hearts, 
not to meditate before what ye shall answer; for I 
will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your 
adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." 
Read the Acts of the Apostles, and find the verifica- 
tion of this prophecy and promise written on almost 
every page. And what a promise! Who but God 
would make it ? Who but God could fulfil it ? "I 
will give you a mouth and wisdom:" I whom they 
shall crucify; I who shall rise again; I who shall 
ascend into heaven ; I, from my throne there, " will 
give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adver- 
saries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." And 
these men went forth, suffering for Christ's sake. 
And Christ sent His Spirit to strengthen their hearts 
and inspire their thoughts, so that they could endure 
the stripes and answer the charges of their enemies. 

As they sat at that last Supper, where the hand of 
the betrayer had been with Him on the table, Jesus 
spake those words of praise, " Ye are they which 
have continued with me in my temptations." And 
then He renewed the promise, " I appoint unto you 
Luke 22: 28-30 a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto 
me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my 
kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve 
tribes of Israel." The scene is too solemn for words 
without weight: there was the profoundest reality 
there. It was just before He went forth to Geth- 



PROPHECIES AND PROMISES. 37 

semane : it was no time to speak in trifling tone. It 
was a transfiguration of spirit : the throne, the judg- 
ment, with their glory and might, were set before 
His eyes ! These were certitudes in His sight ; their 
fulfilment would come according to God's eternal 
decree; the purpose of the eternities of the past 
would have its consummation in the eternities to 
come. Here, as everywhere, the plan of God moves 
from everlasting to everlasting. 

In that comforting discourse on the same night, 
there is a twofold promise, " He that believeth on Johni4:i2,i6 
me, the works that I do, shall he do also ; and greater 
works than these shall he do, because I go unto the 
Father: And I will pray the Father, and he shall 
give you another Comforter, that he may abide with 
you forever." The promise of the Comforter was 
wondrously fulfilled on the day of Pentecost; while 
miracle after miracle attested the truth of Christ's 
promise — in particular, those marvellous miracles of 
grace. These promises have nothing in common 
with the things that men pledge : they are beyond all 
human range. They are within God's sphere — 
no man may enter there. But Christ makes these 
promises in His own name; and their fulfilment is 
the evidence that He had the right to make them and 
the almightiness to perform them. They point to 
the divinity of His nature : nay more, they establish 
it. 

And in the end, He gave the promise, " Ye shall 
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come Acts i: 8. 
upon you : and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in 
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and 



38 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

unto the uttermost part of the earth." And why 
should they witness to Him? And what should be 
their testimony? We find it in the Acts of the 
Apostles, as well as in their Epistles. They preached 
Jesus and the Resurrection — His literal coming forth 
from the grave. They preached the remission of 
sins, and life and salvation by His name. They 
proclaimed Him to be the God of truth and grace. 
The sum and substance of their teaching as to the 
person of Christ, are embraced in the words of the 
beloved disciple, " This is the true God and eternal 
Life." 

The prophecies and promises of Christ: whence 
could they spring but from Him whose words are 
spirit and life: whence but from Him who is the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life? At the well of 
Samaria, the woman confessed, " Sir, I perceive 
that thou art a prophet:" and she acknowledged 
Him to be the Christ. And when we read His 
prophecies and dwell upon His promises, we realize 
that their proclamation belongs to the sphere of 
God's wisdom and their fulfilment to the realm of 
God's might. And as Jesus promised in His own 
name, and fulfilled according to His promise, His 
Godhead is established by the many infallible proofs 
of Scripture, whose truth is settled both by out- 
ward evidence and by inward effect. 

God is the source of all life : the everlasting life 
is antecedent to all other life. There is but one 
infinite, self-determining Agent: there is but one 
infinite Essence. Jesus assumed it everywhere: He 



PROPHECIES AND PROMISES. 39 

declared it in word; He proved it by deed: He is 
the everlasting One. He justified, in all His earthly 
life, the prophetic name that was applied before His 
advent, " Emmanuel, God with us." As God with 
us, the Everlasting One, time was to Him like the 
swing of the pendulum in the eternal age — an open 
incident. It all stood plainly before His eyes. 
Prophecy, therefore, was the essential outcome of 
His everlasting attribute — a natural part of it. In 
like manner, His promises are linked to the perfec- 
tions of His nature — love, truth, might, in infinite 
measure. Here is the Christian's comfort: here 
the Christian's hope. The little while of life's dark 
night will soon be past : we shall see Him once more 
— no longer by faith but by sight. We shall see 
Him and our hearts shall rejoice; and our joy no 
man shall take from us. 



40 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

CHAPTER IV. 

OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE. 

THE sphere of the infinite is God's sphere. He 
shares the honor with none ; for there are none 
with whom to share it — it exceeds the limits of 
mortal life. A superhuman act presupposes a super- 
human power to perform it. If a man speaks a 
prophecy in God's name, it is the omniscient God that 
enables him to speak it. If he works a miracle in 
God's name, the omnipotent God enables him to do it. 
Infinitudes must have an infinite source : the diameter 
always reaches the circumference; it never goes 
beyond it. The circumference of human might is 
finite: the diameter cannot be infinite. 

The New Testament declares the omnipotence of 
Christ. It is implied in the name Emmanuel — God 
with us : it is confidently affirmed by the Evangelists 
and Apostles: it is claimed and exhibited by Christ 
Himself in word and act. The so-called Synoptic 
Gospels — the three whose combined accounts present 
a harmonized history of Christ, begin with the needs 
of His human nature: the Gospel according to St. 
John begins with the omnipotence of His divine 
nature. " The Word was God," is the sublime 
declaration of the beloved disciple. And then to 
make assurance doubly sure, he startles us by the 
sweeping statement, " All things were made by him; 
John 1 : 3. and without him was not anything made that was 
made." This is final for every true disciple of 



OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE. 41 

Christ: it finds a ready response in his heart. It 
settles the issue: there is no escape from it. 

And how do men try to escape this positive 
declaration of the Apostle? They do not attempt 
to untie the knot : they cut it. They play the Jewish 
role: for, in the main, they are Judaistic Gentiles. 
The Jews had agreed that if any man should confess 
Jesus to be the Christ, he should be put out of the 
Synagogue: they would make short work of it. 
And those who deny the divinity of Christ, have 
unwittingly agreed that every book of the New 
Testament — or any part of it — which ascribes to 
Christ the divine attributes : that book, or that part 
of it, must be put out of the Bible. Nothing will be 
suffered to remain that conflicts with their philo- 
sophies. What a veritable scrap-book their Bible 
must be ! 

The beloved disciple had sufficient guarantee for 
the statement he makes. He had heard it from His 
Master — not once, but time upon time. He begins 
with the testimony of John the Baptist, "The Johns =85. 
Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into 
his hand." If His hands were human, how could 
they hold all things ? What empty words are these, 
if His hands were like yours and mine ! Poor clods 
of earth, how could they hold the universe? As 
man stands at the center of human might, his 
finger-tips scarce touch the border-line of space: 
but the hands of Jesus reach out into the universe 
and gather, in His almighty grasp, the worlds and 
all that dwell therein. Let weak men of this weak 



42 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

age deny as they please; John's estimate of Christ 
is settled beyond all doubt: he identifies Him with 
the omnipotent One, " who hath measured the 

isa. 40:12. waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out 
heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of 
the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains 
in scales, and the hills in a balance." The nations 
are but a drop in the bucket; they are counted as 
the small dust in the balance: how infinitesimally 
small must Christ's critics be in His sight ! 

Infinitude is stamped upon everything that 
Christ touches. A few references are sufficient to 
indicate it. He knew " that the Father had given 

johnisrs. all things into his hands;" for " He was come 
from God and went to God." Upon this certain 
knowledge, and the assurance of it, is based the 
promise which is expressed without limit, " What- 

John 14: 13, 14 soever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do:" 
"If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." 
And then to show the source of His omnipotence 
and to inspire faith as to its exercise, He declares 

John 16: 15. His sovereign sway, " All things that the Father 
hath are mine." 

And this is that Jesus, the truth and integrity 
of whose life men pretend to admire, while they 
deny the integrity and truth of His promise ! They 
would make us believe that the same fountain sends 
out waters both bitter and sweet. They draw the 
line : whatever is on the side of the possibilities of 
human life, they accept; whatever goes out into the 
region of the divine, they reject. Who made them 
a judge and a divider of the inspired Word? 



OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE. 43 

What arrogance — to split sentences, and adopt the 
one part and discard the other at pleasure! But 
that is what the modern critic does, to his everlast- 
ing confusion and shame — a stumbling-block to the 
blind, and the halt, and the lame. 

The prayer of Jesus, just before He went over to 
Gethsemane, touches almost every attribute of the 
divine life. It was a solemn moment: His heart 
went out to the Father, and truth was His theme. 
The sublime sentiments which the Evangelist attri- 
butes to Christ, are not of human source : they are 
far above the power of human thought. There is 
an infinite majesty as He stands there; and His 
words deal with infinitudes: "Father, the hour John 17 .- 1, 2. 
is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may 
glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over 
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many 
as thou hast given him." The One who has power 
over all flesh; the One who gives eternal life: — that 
is God's power; it is God's gift: it belongs to none 
else. But Christ claims it as His peculiar power 
and gift. Admit the claim; then Christ is God! 
And He but emphasizes this truth when He further 
declares, " All mine are thine, and thine are John 17 : 10. 
mine." 

The same almightiness marks His commission to 
His disciples. He called the Twelve together and 
sent them forth two by two ; and He " gave them Luke 9 : 1. 
power and authority over all devils, and to cure 
diseases." And in His commission to the Seventy, 
He added this specific promise, " Behold, I give 



44 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Luke io: 19. unto you power to tread on serpents and scor- 
pions, and over all the power of the enemy; and 
nothing shall by any means hurt you." 

After His resurrection, He committed to the 
Apostles a spiritual power that is altogether divine: 
He breathed on them and said, " Receive ye the 

John20:22,23 Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins ye remit, they 
are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye 
retain, they are retained." And when He gave 
them their final commission, He based its authority 
upon an inherent right, " All power is given unto 

Matt. 28: 18,19 me in heaven and in earth;" while in the com- 
mandment which follows, He declares the doctrine 
of the Trinity and His own personal equality 
there : " Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Thus the 
Evangelists laid the foundation-stone, upon which 
the early Church built its confession as to the Person 

TheNicene °* Christ, " God of God, Light of Light, Very 
creed. q 0( ^ £ y er y q Q( \ : " a truth which is everywhere 
implied in the declarations of His Human-divine 
Omnipotence. 



The Epistles are equally emphatic on this point. 
It is no human attribute that St. Paul assigns to 
Jesus when he writes, "To us there is but one God, 
i cor. 8:6. the Father, of whom are all things and we in 
him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all 
things, and we by him." God the Father the 
originating source; God the Son the mediating 



OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE. 45 

source ; while, in proper place, the Apostle speaks of 
God the Holy Ghost as the applying source. 

St. Paul sets it forth as his special appointment 
to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ; "And 
to make all men see what is the fellowship of Eph. 3:9. 
the mystery which from the beginning of the world 
hath been hid in God, who created all things by 
Jesus Christ." And that we may be assured that 
Jesus Christ was not some specially endowed 
angelic servant to whom was committed the creative 
act, he elsewhere strips the case of all possible 
doubt, " For by him were all things created, that 001.1: 16,17. 
are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and 
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or 
principalities, or powers : all things were created 
by him and for him: And he is before all things, 
and by him all things consist." This can be 
affirmed of no creature: God alone is before all 
things; by Him alone all things consist. And yet, 
this is affirmed of Christ. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews presents the same 
claim. It says that God made the worlds by Him; 
and that He upholds all things by the word of Heb. 1:2,3. 
His power. And so the omnipotence of God is 
everywhere manifest in the offices of Christ. 

The omnipotence of Jesus — what undoubted evi- 
dence of it He gave in the presence of the dead! 
He took the little maid by the hand, and she Matt. 9 : 18-26. 
arose. When He met the funeral train outside the 
city gate, His voice of command sounded in the 
depths of the realm of the dead, " Young man, Luke 7 : 11-15. 



46 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

I say unto thee arise!" And he that was dead sat 
up and began to speak. And when He came to the 
tomb at Bethany, He cried with a loud voice, 

John 11 :43,44 " Lazarus, come forth!" And he that was dead 
came forth bound hand and foot. 

These omnipotent acts prove the truth of what 
Jesus taught. He had made the claim, " As the 

John 5 : 21. Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them ; 
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." Then 
comes that claim to almightiness which reaches be- 
yond the confines of time and settles the eternal 

John 5: 25. issue, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is 
coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the 
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall 
live." It would seem that some who heard these 
words were struck with profound amazement. 
And so, Jesus sweeps past the centuries of time 
and draws them to the very bar of the last great 
day : " Marvel not at this ; for the hour is coming 

John 5: 28, 29. in the which all that are in the graves shall hear 
his voice and shall come forth : they that have done 
good unto the resurrection of life; and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." 
The Epistles everywhere picture the same profound 
scene. 

The omnipotence of Christ implies His omni- 
presence : for where His power is, there His pres- 
ence must be. If we are satisfied as to His omni- 
potence, we shall be equally sure as to His 
omnipresence. In short, the infinitude of one 
attribute implies and involves the infinitude of 



OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE. 47 

every other possible attribute. The all-seeing One 
is the all-present One: the all-present One is the 
all-knowing One: the all-knowing One is the all- 
wise One. The divine attributes are interlocked 
and the key is in God's keeping: no materialist, 
no atheist, no rationalist, can wrest it from His 
almighty hand. 

We are not left, however, to the cold logic of the 
case : we have the direct testimony of Christ. He 
said to Nicodemus, " No man hath ascended up John 3: i& 
to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even 
the Son of Man which is in heaven." Mark that 
scene. It is in the depth of the night. A great 
ruler of the Jews approaches Jesus and acknowledges 
Him to be a teacher sent from God: he further 
acknowledges Christ's miracles as a proof of it. 
And then Jesus fills his soul with amazement as He 
says, in fact, " I came down from heaven ; I ascend 
into heaven : even while I am talking with you, I the 
Son of Man am in heaven!" He declares His 
Human-divine omnipresence, pure and simple. 

It was a comforting assurance that He gave His 
disciples, "Where two or three are gathered Matt, is : 20. 
together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them." And when He told them that they should 
teach men to observe all things that He had com- 
manded them, just before He was taken up and a 
cloud received Him out of their sight, He gave the 
promise, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto Matt. 28:20. 
the end of the world." And upon that promise, 
" they went forth and preached everywhere, the Mark 16:20. 
Lord working with them, and confirming the Word 



48 THE SEPARATED LIFE 

with signs following." What these signs were, 
we learn from the Acts of the Apostles. 

The omnipotence and omnipresence of Christ: 
they are affirmed on all proper occasions by Christ 
and His disciples; they are implied on every page 
of the New Testament. If every chapter in which 
Jesus manifested these divine attributes was torn 
out of the Gospel accounts, there would scarcely be 
a single one left. The destructive work of those 
who deny the divinity of Christ, reaches farther 
than they would openly admit or than men com- 
monly suspect. If they could succeed in tearing 
up the foundation stones of the Gospel of Christ, 
the devastation would be as complete as when the 
Romans laid waste the Holy City: not one stone 
would be left in its original place : the wreck of the 
ages would have come — the souls of our loved ones 
buried beneath the broken-down walls of what was 
once the Church of Christ ! But such shall not be : 
for the promise is, " The gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." 

And that we may not fall in this siege nor be 
captured by the artful foe, let the Word of God 
dwell richly in our hearts, and let us earnestly con- 
tend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Let 
us go as far as did the Apostles. If any man 
comes and brings another Gospel, let us not bid him 
ii Joim 10. God speed ; let us not receive him into our 
houses : let us rather turn upon him as Paul turned 
upon that sorcerer who sought to draw the deputy 
from the faith : " O full of all subtlety and all 



OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE. 49 

mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of Actsi3 : io. 
all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the 
right ways of the Lord!" Eternal interests are at 
stake: we dare not be silent; we dare not compro- 
mise; we dare not suffer anyone to stand between 
our souls and their salvation by Christ. We must 
be true to God's truth and promise ; we must be true 
to the conviction of our hearts. 

And true to God's truth, true to the conviction 
which it inspires, we shall be true to truth wherever 
we find it. We shall not take the narrow view of 
the disciple: "Master, we saw one casting out Luke 9: 49. 
devils in thy name ; and we forbade him, because he 
followeth not with us." We shall honor truth' 
as Jesus honored it. At the same time, we shall 
be as unbending as was He. With His truth in 
hand and heart, we shall say as He said, " He that Matt. 12: so. 
is not with me is against me." Where men are with 
Christ, we are with them in Christ. Where men 
depart from Christ, we must depart from them : we 
cannot leave Christ. That were death — spiritual 
death — to leave Him who is the life of our life. 



50 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

CHAPTER V. 

SPECIAL EXERCISE OF DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 

THE Scriptures tell us that all things are naked 
and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom 
we have to do. The Psalmist had a profound 
conception of this marvellous truth. He pictures 
man as shrinking from the divine presence, and thus 
concludes, "If I say, Surely the darkness shall 

ps. 139: 11,12. cover me; even the night shall be light about 
me: The darkness and the light are both alike to 
thee." Men cannot flee from His presence — and 
they know it. The heart of man confesses, " Thou 

Gen. 16:13. God seest me." The Lord reveals Himself as 
the searcher of hearts. 

The secrets of men's hearts, the impulses moving 
there — to know these is no common gift. To move 
along spiritual lines, with spiritual knowledge and 
spiritual effect — the natural and visible and phy- 
sical completely set aside: that is God's sphere; it 
is too high for human attainment. It may be ad- 
mitted that here and there are abnormal develop- 
ments, with results that baffle the wise and the 
prudent; but these results, wonderful as they may 
be, are void of all benefit: they lack power propor- 
tioned to the seeming gift. They are like the 
enchantments of Egypt: the rods of the sorcerers 
became serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed their 
rods. All modern enchantment is as powerless as 
was that of ancient time. It is mere exhibition : 
it does not act. It belongs to the stage : it has 



EXERCISE OF DIVINE ATTRIB UTES. 51 

nothing in common with the serious realities of 
life. 

It is a marvellous fact that John did no miracle; 
although his ministry was, in part, co-incident with 
that of Christ. He spoke plain facts; he gave 
expression to the profoundest mysteries; he claimed 
special revelation along Messianic lines. And yet, 
throughout, he kept within the limits of human 
thought and act. At most, he was a prophet, with 
scarcely a display of the prophetic gift. The Bible 
critic tries to tell us that the age of Christ was one 
of superstitious awe; that every little mystified act 
was magnified into a miracle. The ministry of 
John proves the falsity and unfoundedness of such a 
charge, as well as the shallow thought of those who 
make it. It is all swept aside by that one little 
statement, " John did no miracle." 

As soon, however, as Jesus comes upon the scene, 
the case is altogether different. Here the miraculous 
preponderates : thought, speech, act — each has the 
mark of miracle upon it. There must be some solid 
reason for this broad distinction between His 
ministry and that of the Baptist. They lived in the 
same age; they ministered to the same class of 
people; they had, in large part, the same message. 
And yet, John did no miracle, while the ministry of 
Christ is crowded with miracles. Why this world- 
wide difference ? There is but one answer — it is the 
answer of Scripture: John was human; Jesus was 
human and divine. 

The divinity of Jesus is manifest in the way He 



52 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

read men's thoughts. And His power to read men's 
thoughts is not pushed to the front by the Evange- 
lists in order to bolster up the theory that He was 
divine — an afterthought, as it were, on their part. 
In each instance, it comes into play in the simple 
straightforward recital of some life incident. At 
Capernaum, they brought to Him a man sick of the 
palsy. And Jesus saw their faith! He saw, not 
merely the faith as exhibited by their act; but the 
faith in their hearts. It was a miracle of sight, 
this seeing the invisible thought. And when He 
saw their faith, He said to the sick man, " Thy sins 
Luke 6 : 17-26 are forgiven thee." The scribes and Pharisees 
were shocked at such an utterance. And they 
reasoned in themselves, " Who is this which speak- 
eth blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God 
alone?" And then comes the remarkable record 
that Jesus perceived their thoughts and said, " What 
reason ye in your hearts?" He thus makes the 
open claim that He reads the thoughts of men's 
hearts : and He adds such outward effects as to prove 
the truth of His claim and demonstrate that His 
nature is divine. No other inference can be drawn 
from the entire incident; for everything else is on 
the scale of God's infinite wisdom and might. 

After Jesus had taught the Pharisees, by an apt 
illustration, that the Son of Man is Lord even of 
the Sabbath — a very strong claim in view of the 
fact that God alone is Lord of the Law which He 
gave to Moses on the Mount: after making this 
claim, He came into conflict with them as to the 
special duties and demands of the sacred day. As 



EXERCISE OF DIVINE A TTRIB TJTES. 53 

He taught in the synagogue, there was a man there 
with a withered hand. The Pharisees watched Him 
whether He would heal on the Sabbath : they wanted 
to find a ground of accusation against Him. But 
Jesus knew their thoughts ; and calling the man into 
the midst, He asked, " Is it lawful on the Sabbath Luke 6: 7-9. 
days to do good or to do evil? to save life or to 
destroy it?" And He took the man and healed 
him. He did not guess at these men's thoughts: 
their thoughts were as open to Him as visible acts. 
It was by the almightiness of His nature that He 
looked into their hearts. 

The case of the woman who stood at Jesus' feet, 
and washed them with her tears, and anointed them 
with ointment, is practically the same. Here the 
Pharisee set the standard; and Jesus met it. The 
Pharisee had said, "This man, if he were aLuke7:89-5o 
prophet, would have known who and what manner 
of woman this is that toucheth him; for she is a 
sinner." And then, by a parable with its pointed 
application, Jesus showed that He understood the 
case and thus proved Himself at least a prophet; 
while in His declaration of pardon, He openly 
proclaimed Himself to be divine. On His own 
authority, He said, " Thy sins are forgiven thee : 
thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace." No man 
may speak such words in his own name : they may 
come from God alone, or from him whom God 
appoints. 

When the disciples reasoned among themselves 
as to which should be the greatest, Jesus perceived 
the thoughts of their hearts; and to teach the lesson 



54 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Luke9:46,47 of humble service, He set a little child in their 
midst. The Evangelist declares that Jesus " needed 

John 2 : 24, 25 not that any should testify of man; for he knew 
what was in man." In short, throughout, He 
claims to know the secrets of men's hearts; while 
His disciples, wherever they touch upon the subject, 
acknowledge that He has the power to read men's 
thoughts. But this is God's province, and God's 
alone: Jesus, therefore, proves His Godhead by the 
direct personal exercise of this divine attribute. 
He declares His divinity by doing on His own 
authority and in His own name that which is abso- 
lutely divine. 

The Sermon on the Mount was a revelation of 
the divine : " The people were astonished at his 

Matt. 7 : 28,29. doctrine ; for he taught them as one having 
authority, and not as the scribes." The authori- 
tative tone was everywhere manifest. He set His 
word over against the teachings of old time : He set 
His acts over against the doings of old time. When 
He cleansed the Temple, He said, " Take these 
things hence:" it was the exercise of an inherent 
right. When He healed the sick, cleansed the 
lepers, raised the dead: it was the Master's voice 
that spake. It was one of those scenes of amaze- 
ment that led the people to question among them- 
selves, " What thing is this ? for with authority 

Marki: 27. commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they 
do obey him." And well might they wonder; for 
He performed almighty acts in His own almighty 
name : His authority was His own almighty right. 



EXERCISE OF Dl VINE A TTRIB UTES. 55 

The method of Christ stands in such striking con- 
trast to that of His disciples! In the days of their 
pupilage, they had, indeed, been ambitious for power 
and place: and more than once they were severely 
rebuked for it. But after the day of Pentecost, 
they went everywhere working miracles in Christ's 
name. When Peter healed that lame man at the 
Temple-gate, he said, "In the name of Jesus Acts 3: a 
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And when 
he was examined as to the means by which the man 
was made whole, Peter steadfastly replied, " By the 
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, doth this man 
stand here before you whole." He said to Aeneas, 
"Jesus Christ maketh thee whole;" and the palsied 
man arose. And when Dorcas died, not until Acts 9 : 33-40. 
he had kneeled down and prayed, did he turn to the 
body and say, " Tabitha, arise." All the cures that 
the Apostles wrought, were performed upon Jesus' 
authority and in reliance on Jesus' healing gift. 

The Apostles were commissioned by Christ to 
preach repentance and remission of sins in His name. 
And so they made the universal demand, "Be- Acts 16: 31. 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved:" "Be baptized every one of you in the Acts 2: 38. 
name of Jesus." They preached Christ; they bap- 
tized in the name of Christ; they pleaded for the 
sake of Christ. In the opening sentences of their 
letters, they proclaim themselves the servants of 
Christ : at the close, they commend those whom they 
address to the grace of Christ. They each could 
say, as did St. Paul to the Church at Corinth, "I 1 cor. 2 : 2. 
determined not to know anything among you, save 



56 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Jesus Christ." To them, Christ was all in all, God 
over all blessed for ever. 

Jesus preached in His own name; He performed 
miracles in His own name: He did it because His 
name is above every name. Is there no significance 
here? Was the meek and lowly Jesus so self- 
centered that He put Himself in the divine place — 
exalting Himself beyond degree! And were His 
disciples so completely swayed by His daring art, 
that His word became the unchanging law of their 
life! " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be 

Matt, is : is. bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose 
on earth shall be loosed in heaven:" was that 
hallucination on His part? And were they duped 
into the idea that He had power and authority to 
carry such a promise into effect? Such questions 
need no answer : they show the utter folly of denying 
the divinity of Christ. The denial of His eternal 
Godhead involves the denial of almost every passage 
of Scripture that deals directly with His life. 

A specially distinctive feature in the ministry of 
Christ, is His treatment of the inner sickness of 
sin, as well as its outward effects. " Thy sins be 
forgiven thee:" thus He spake to the man sick of 
the palsy. And when they charged Him with 
blasphemy, He set before them the alternative, 

Matt. 9: i-7. " Whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven 
thee; or to say, Arise and walk?" In the case of 
men, they would be equally impossible: in the case 
of God, they would be equally possible. The out- 
ward healing would be the evidence of the inward 



EXERCISE OF DIVINE A TTRIB UTES. 57 

cure. And as God alone could effect the bodily 
cure; so He alone might declare the cleansing of the 
heart. The challenge of the scribes is a challenge 
to the divinity of Christ. And Christ meets their 
challenge : He proves His divinity when He says to 
the sick of the palsy, " Arise, take up thy bed, and 
go unto thine house/' By this, they were to know 
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins. These scribes had said, " Who can forgive 
sins but God alone?" They set that as the absolute 
condition : and they were right. And now that 
Jesus demonstrated His power to forgive sins, by 
making the man every whit whole, He demonstrated 
also that He is God. There is no way to set aside 
this evident fact, except to deny the Scripture 
account of it. Nothing but blank infidelity drives 
to such a resort. 

This is not the only instance in which Christ for- 
gave sins in His own name. In the case of that 
sinful woman who wept at His feet, He said, " Thy 
sins are forgiven." And when they that sat at meat 
with Him began to murmur and say within them- 
selves, " Who is this that forgiveth sins also ?" He 
answered them by saying to the woman, " Thy Luke 7: 47-50. 
faith hath saved thee; go in peace." It was not 
for them to meddle with His divine right. 

He not only exercised in His own name the office 
of God to forgive sins: He commissioned His dis- 
ciples to do the same : " Whosesoever sins ye remit, 
they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever John 20: 22,2s 
sins ye retain, they are retained." No one but God 
can delegate an authority that God alone possesses. 



58 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

St. Paul recognizes this as the special power and 
province of God and His Anointed. To the Church 
at Ephesus he says, " Be ye kind one to another, 

Eph. 4:32. tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as 
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." And 
these words find their counterpart in His letter to 
the Colossians, when he writes, " Even as Christ 

coi. 3:13. forgave you, so also do ye." God forgives: 
Christ forgives : God for Christ's sake forgives. 
What utter contradiction here, unless Christ is God. 
That was St. John's judgment, a judgment inspired 

John i:i. by the Holy Ghost: " The Word was God." 

These are special marks of the divine nature of 
Christ: they are taken from incidental cases — from 
cases in which some other quality comes into 
prominence, and without which we would be com- 
pelled to look for these attributes to some other 
source. And that fact adds to their evidential value. 
There is no effort, on the part of the Evangelists, 
to emphasize Christ's exercise of divine prerogative : 
they have quite a different purpose in view. And 
yet, they state facts which make this truth the more 
evident. The accounts are not given to show that 
Jesus could read thoughts; that He exercised an 
authority which was wholly divine; or that He had 
power on earth to forgive sins : that was not the 
point. The accounts are given to record the won- 
derful works of Christ ; and the exhibition of divine 
right, as well as the assertion of it, was made 
necessary because His enemies had tried to set Him 
forth as a blasphemer and thus break His influence 



EXERCISE OF DIVINE ATTRIB UTES. 59 

with the people. And so, He was compelled to 
speak and act in self-defence: it was another in- 
stance of the manner in which God causes the wrath 
of man to praise Him. 

As we look upon these instances of the special 
exercise of divine attributes, the conviction becomes 
irresistible that Jesus Christ was none but God mani- 
fest in the flesh. It was prophesied of Him as 
plainly as prophecy could make it : it was announced 
at His birth as a glorious fact : it was proclaimed at 
His baptism by a voice from the throne: it was 
recorded by the Evangelists on every page they 
wrote: it has been confessed by the great body of 
Christian believers in every succeeding age. Let us 
hold fast the form of sound words — the universal 
expression of God's people since the Day of Pente- 
cost : " The Holy Church throughout all the The Te 
world, doth acknowledge Thee, O Christ." 



60 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

CHAPTER VI. 

SPECIAL CLAIMS AND ACTS. 



I 



F a man makes an unusual claim — something that 
requires exceptional gifts, or is outside the 
common human range, or exceeds the authority 
of our common life — we question at once his ability 
or right to do it. It is true, men are easily drawn 
aside by vain conceits. It is a part of our nature to 
have a sort of superstitious awe for the incom- 
prehensible: for what is superstition but the prosti- 
tution of the universal religious sense? And yet, 
men of sober thought demand a reason for every 
claim that transcends the privilege or power of the 
masses. It is well that such is the case ; for without 
that sense of just balancing between cause and effect, 
between an inherent right and its legitimate exer- 
cise : without such a sense, there would be imposi- 
tions and usurpations without number or name. 

And so when Jesus cleansed the Temple with that 
scathing rebuke, " My house shall be called the house 

Matt. 21: 13. of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves;" 
the chief priests and elders of the people did not 
exceed their rights when they demanded, " By what 

Matt. 21 : 23. authority doest thou these things ? and who gave 
thee this authority?" The question was a proper 
one; but an evil purpose inspired it: hence the 
dilemma in which Jesus left them. He never failed 
to answer the true question of the heart, and to 
answer it to the heart's comfort and peace. The 



SPECIAL CLAIMS AND ACTS. 61 

Temple was his Father's House; and as the Son of 
God, He had authority to drive out those who de- 
filed it. 

The special claims and acts of Christ abound 
everywhere — on every page the Evangelists wrote. 
And as we read them, we are impressed with one 
fact : They were not written for passing effect ; they 
were written to give a plain account of His words 
and deeds. That intensifies their value as evidence 
of His divine nature. If these things were set up as 
arguments, they would lose much of their force: in 
fact, their evidential value would be lost. But 
coming, as they do, in the natural ongoing of events, 
they can be relied upon as actual historical occur- 
rences, and valid proofs of the transcendent char- 
acter of Christ. 

It is one of the plainest facts of Scripture that 
the words of Christ would be blasphemous in the 
extreme, or the very essence of presumption and 
nonsense, unless He is divine. That was the re- 
peated charge against Him. And by divine, I do 
not simply mean Godlike ; but God in very truth and 
essence. Let us now notice a few special claims 
which no one but God may make in his own name : 
they are overwhelming in nature and force. 

When Nathanael was brought to Jesus and came 
to realize, by the statement of Christ, that His was 
the all-seeing eye, he made that unqualified acknow- 
ledgment, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou 
art the King of Israel." It was but slight testimony 
that caused Nathanael to confess Christ — some little 



62 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

incident under the figtree. It was enough, however, 
to create a conviction and cause him to declare it. 
In recognition of this fact, Jesus said, " Thou shalt 

John i:48-5i. see greater things than these: Hereafter, ye 
shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascend- 
ing and descending upon the Son of Man." The 
folly of such words on mere mortal lips — the utter 
folly of it ! How would they sound from this pulpit, 
if I were to repeat them in my own name? But 
when Jesus speaks them, something within us whis- 
pers, " Be still, and know that I am God." 

The scene at the well of Samaria is one of the 
most remarkable in the history of Christ. The 
woman recognized Him as a prophet. And then, 
when she saw in His words the marks of the 
promised Christ, Jesus openly declared, " I that 

John 4: 25. 26. speak unto thee am he." Who but a fanatic 
ever claimed to be the Christ? Who, but one that 
aimed to deceive the people? But Jesus claimed 
it. And even they who deny that He was divine, 
are compelled to confess that His character was a 
perfect one, His nature pure: in short, they even 
confess with the prophet, " He did no sin, neither 
was guile found in His mouth." 

There is a tone of divine authority when Jesus 
commissions the twelve Apostles : the voice of God 
sounds in His utterances there. Is not the divine 
element most fully manifest when He says, " Who- 

Matt.io:32 33 soever, therefore, shall confess me before men, 
him will I confess also before my Father which is 
in heaven : but whosoever shall deny me before men, 
him will I also deny before my Father which is in 
heaven." Confess what? or what deny? What 



SPECIAL CLAIMS AND ACTS. 63 

could it be but that He is the Christ — in Himself and 
of Himself divine. 

In the same connection, He puts Himself in like 
divine place: "He that loveth father or mother Matt. io.- 37. 
more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that 
loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy 
of me." The highest human claim is the claim of 
home : no authority, no principality, no power, may 
supplant it. But Jesus steps in between the heart 
of parent and child, and demands the first place. 
That is God's province and God's alone : no one but 
a false prophet would usurp it. 

The claim of superiority, of supreme authority, of 
divine right: the words and works of Christ every- 
where declare it. If "the Son of Man is Lord Matt. 12:8. 
even of the Sabbath," He is Lord of all time. He 
was greater than Solomon; He was greater than Luke 11:31,32 
Jonah: greater than prophet and king. He was 
greater than the Temple ; He was superior to all the 
relationships of life: He rose above every earthly Matt.i2:6,50 
place and state. And when He sets Himself above 
all else, we may well ask, as was asked of John the 
Baptist, "Whom makest thou thyself?" But we 
shall not get the humble answer that John gave, " I 
am but a voice !" No : this meek and lowly Nazarene 
will tell us from the very throne, " I am the first Rev. i: 17, is 
and the last: I am he that liveth and was dead — I 
am alive for evermore : I have the keys of hell and 
death." It is God who thus speaks : let all the earth 
keep silence before Him. 

If Jesus were but mortal like ourselves — and no 
more, what consummate self-assertion, on His part, 



64 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

to make the least special demands upon our lives! 
He speaks to men with the same divine authority 
as He spake to the winds and waves. He says, " If 

Lake9:23, 24 any man will come after me, let him deny himself 
and take up his cross daily, and follow me: for 
whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but who- 
soever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall 
save it." There is a similar tone when He sets 
Himself above every human tie, and then concludes, 

Luke 14: 33. " So likewise, whosoever he be of you that for- 
saketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." 
No mere man dare make such a claim upon your life 
and mine: that rests with God alone. If Christ 
were not God, His demands would be destitute of all 
loyalty and love : they would be destructive of social 
life. But as God, He simply declares that which 
God established amid the smoke of the Holy Mount, 
" Thou shalt have no other gods before me." 

It was a noble confession that Simon Peter made, 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
And then followed that divine declaration which 
has been so sadly perverted and so falsely used to 
bind men's consciences : " I say unto thee, That thou 

Matt. 16 : is. art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." Then comes the additional pledge, " I 

Matt. 16: 19. will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The keys 
of the kingdom of heaven belong to God. No man 
who distinguishes between divine and human rights 



SPECIAL CLAIMS AND ACTS. 65 

would exercise the authority to absolve and to ex- 
communicate — that is God's office. But Jesus here 
assumes this divine right and commissions His 
disciples to exercise it. He commits it to His Church 
to be used in His name through all time. He takes 
to Himself God's authority to bind and loose, and 
establishes its service because of His divine right and 
title to it. 

The manner in which He pronounced woes upon 
those who rejected Him, is suggestive of divine 
judgment. And when He taught His disciples to 
be humble, He set a little child in their midst. Then 
came the precious promise, " Whoso shall receive Matt. 18: 5,1 
one such little child in my name, receiveth me." 
And then, too, came that terrible antithesis, " But 
whoso shall offend one of these little ones which 
believe in me, it were better for him that a mill- 
stone were hanged about his neck and that he were 
drowned in the depth of the sea." A declaration 
like that should start some serious thought in the 
mind of those who discredit the divinity of Christ: 
it should startle those who try to shake men's faith 
in Him as the Redeemer of our race. All who 
teach salvation by the evolution of life; all who 
teach that man without Christ is a saved creature; 
all who teach salvation by character and not by 
Christ : all such offend those who believe in Christ — 
they cause them to stumble. Thus, they are the 
enemies of the Cross of Christ. 

Jesus everywhere makes Himself one with His 
disciples : it marks the perfection of His humanity. 
He everywhere attaches to Himself the honor and 



Q6 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

power that belong to God: it marks the complete- 
ness of His divinity. He makes no mere human 
promise when He says, " Whosoever shall give you 

Mark 9: 4i. a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye 
belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not 
lose his reward." And when He counsels them, 
" Call no man your father upon the earth, for one 

Matt. 23: 9, 10. is your Father which is in heaven: neither be ye 
called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ :" 
when He puts these names thus side by side, there 
is a reasonable inference that it was His purpose 
to treat each as divine. The more so when, in the 
same connection, He exalts Himself in God's place; 
as He does when He speaks as the ever-existent 

Matt. 23:34. One: "Behold, I send you prophets, and wise 
men, and scribes;" or when He assumes the tone of 
omnipotent love, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 

Matt. 23: 37,38 that killest the prophets, and stonest them which 
are sent unto thee ; how often would I have gathered 
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
chickens under her wings, and ye would not : behold, 
your house is left unto you desolate." These 
claims are clouds without water; they are raging 
waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, if 
He who speaks them is but mortal like ourselves. 

Is it possible that Jesus was given to idle boast? 
Was His speech but loud and lofty bombast like 
that of Goliath of Gath? We smite our breasts 
at the thought! And yet, such must have been the 
case; unless He was more than man. God alone 
would dare to speak as He spake — if there was 
truth in the inward parts. Who can look within 
Gethsemane and doubt the sincerity of His heart? 



SPECIAL CLAIMS AND ACTS. 67 

who can hear Him as He agonized there, " O my 
Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me ;" 
and not be moved to his soul's depths and acknow- 
ledge the self-immolation of that precious life ! The 
meek submission with which He bowed to His 
Father's will : the calm composure with which He 
faced the approaching foe! Yet mark the loftiness 
of soul with which He rebuked Peter as he drew that 
fragile blade, " Put up thy sword: Thinkest thou Matt. 26: 52-5* 
that I cannot now pray to my Father and He shall 
presently give me more than twelve legions of 
angels? But how then shall the Scripture be ful- 
filled that thus it must be?" What idle boast that 
would be, if Jesus were not God incarnate ! But vest 
Him with His own omnipotence, and the glory of 
God turns the darkness of Gethsemane into the very 
brightness of Paradise. 

In like strain are the words which He uttered at 
that last Paschal Feast. The moment of deepest 
intensity had come: Judas had gone out, and Jesus 
could now freely speak the thought of His heart. 
Mark what He says, " Now is the Son of Man John 13: si, 32 
glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be 
glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in him- 
self, and shall straightway glorify him." These 
words are easy of comprehension if we acknowledge 
that Jesus came forth from the Father and, having 
finished His work, was about to leave the world and 
go unto the Father: they are clear if His Godhead 
is admitted to be a Scriptural fact. If, however, 
He was but a man, born in time and died in time, 
with no pre-existence and no resurrection to crown 
His earthly life; then these words are incompre- 



68 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

hensible : they are void of all significance : they are 
fleeting as the breath of their utterance. But that 
was not His spirit; and that was not the effect. It 
was the divine asserting its divine right and claim- 
ing the honor that is peculiarly divine. It was God 
anticipating in time the glory that was His from 
everlasting to everlasting. 

These claims of Christ — these special acts — how 
shall we interpret them? How can we, aside from 
the divinity of His nature? They are marked by 
sincerity of heart : they are expressive of truth in the 
inward parts. They are substantiated by the pro- 
portionate balancing between the outward mani- 
festation and the inward might. And shall all this 
go for nought? Shall philosophic religion under- 
mine our faith in historic fact? The history that 
gives Christ His place as man — that very history 
gives Him His rank as God. The history that tells 
of the purity and truth of His words — that very 
history tells of the omnipotence of His works. 
And so, the argument that would set aside His 
divinity, would also set aside His humanity! The 
irony of logic : into what straits it drives men who 
trifle with truth! The enemies of the orthodox 
faith in Christ as God manifest in the flesh, prove 
too much : they therefore prove nothing — their argu- 
ment falls to the ground. And so, Christ reigns 
supreme; and He will reign till He come to take 
His ransomed home. Christ reigns supreme; and 
He will reign for ever, and ever. Amen. 



HOMAGE AND HONORS. 69 

CHAPTER VII. 

HOMAGE AND HONORS. 

THE spirit of worship is a part of man's nature: 
it is inseparable from it. No other creature 
of earth possesses it: no other creature of 
earth is capable of it. It exhibits the unity of the 
race as well as its separateness from every other 
form of animal life. In the case of man in his state 
of nature, the object of worship varies according to 
the prevailing spirit — the civilizing influences, the 
degrading forces, the culture or lack of culture, each 
having its special effect. In all ages, the hosts of 
the skies have been objects of adoration, while the 
heroes of earth have been lifted up and made to sit 
in heavenly places. 

The tendency, however, is always downward — a 
brutalizing of the noblest ideals of the world's sub- 
limest thought. The charge that St. Paul makes is 
of universal application : Men become wise in their Rom. 1 : 21-28 
imaginations; their foolish heart is darkened; they 
change the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and 
four-footed beasts, and creeping things. In short, 
they follow the desires of their own hearts. The 
natural man is given to worship ; but he worships the 
creature in the fulfilment of its lusts. 

In early ages, there was one notable exception to 
the idolatries that abounded on all sides. It was 
that people to whom Jehovah said, " Thou shalt have 
no other gods before me." He had made choice 



70 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

of a patriarchal line and had separated unto Himself 
a peculiar people. And His command was, " I am 
the Lord thy God : walk before me and be thou 
perfect." Down through the centuries, this people 
stands unique — with a history of mighty deliver- 
ances, and universal empire as a well founded hope. 
And in it all, Jehovah was supreme. While there 
were lapses into the idolatries of the surrounding 
nations and tribes; while they even turned the em- 
blems of God's deliverance into objects of adoration; 
distressing captivities brought them to a sense of 
their disloyalty to God's name; they became peni- 
tently conscious of Jehovah's just judgments; their 
cry brought new evidence of God's saving might ; 
and it was the sincere confession of their hearts, 
" Thou art God; and beside thee there is none else." 
At last Christ came — came when the Temple 
worship was at its height; came when the honor of 
God's name was jealously guarded by priest and 
scribe. There was fanaticism; there were idola- 
tries of a subtle sort — unconscious idolatries; there 
was hypocrisy : but the rulers were zealous for God's 
worship and God's name; and blasphemies were met 
with stones. " He made himself equal with God," 
was the charge that sent Jesus to the Cross. 

It was under such influences and amid such sur- 
roundings that Jesus grew to man's estate. He 
honored His Father's House; He honored His 
Father's Name. It was His sad complaint, " I 
honor my Father and ye do dishonor me." He had 
a lofty conception of the religious life. When 
Satan tempted Him to do him homage, His pure 



HOMAGE AND HONORS. 71 

spirit revolted at the thought and He gave that sharp 
rebuke, "Get thee, hence, Satan; for it is written, 
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him Mark 4 : 10. 
only shalt thou serve." He had a lofty view of the 
devotional life : " God is a Spirit, and they that 
worship him must worship him in spirit and in John 4 : 24. 
truth." He despised flatteries. When that man knelt 
to Him and asked, "Good Master, what shall I Markio:i7,i8 
do that I may inherit eternal life?" Jesus said unto 
him, " Why callest thou me good ? There is none 
good, but one, that is, God." False honor could not 
pass without rebuke : He met it with sharp replies : 
He would not accept the homage of a false heart. 
He knew the truth expressed by the Psalmist, " If Psaim 66 : is. 
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
me." There could, therefore, be no idolatries, no 
hypocrisies, in the ministries of His life. 

And yet, He who said, " Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve " — He 
accepted divine honor and claimed it. No sooner 
did He go up from the Jordan to accomplish the 
work for which He was made manifest, than He 
began to accept the worship of men. He received, 
without protest on His part, divine honors, divine 
names, divine praise. When Nathanael had proof 
of Christ's omniscience, he confessed, " Rabbi, John 1: 48-51. 
thou art the Son of God." Jesus not only accepted 
his tribute of praise; He even assured the man of 
greater evidence of His divine nature. That night 
out upon the deep, when the disciples were battling 
against the waves and Christ came to the rescue, 
the winds ceased and there was a great calm. And 
they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, 



72 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Matt. H: 33. saying, " Of a truth, thou art the Son of God." 
Again there was no evidence of displeasure, not a 
word of rebuke. They made Him equal with God : 
He accepted their praise. 

We are not surprised, therefore, when He openly 
claims the same homage that is due to the Father — 
an homage that is based upon the oneness of the 
divine essence: "I and my Father are one." The 
Jews had sought to kill Him, because He usurped 
God's name. In reply, He co-ordinates His works 
with those of the Father, thus giving occasion for 
the charge that He made Himself equal with God. 
He did not deny the charge: He rather confirmed 
it by those words which plainly mark His divine 
office, " The Father judgeth no man, but hath com- 

John5: 22,23 mitted all judgment unto the Son: that all men 
should honor the Son even as they honor the Father." 
Thus He no longer passively accepts men's praise : 
He is self-assertive — claims for Himself universal 
homage. In point of divine honor, He thought it 
not robbery to be equal with God. 

There are other instances that display the same 
undoubted fact — the truth being the more strongly 
punctuated because of its historic guise. The 
Pharisees excommunicated the man to whom Jesus 
had given sight. Jesus met him, opening the eyes of 
his understanding: He gave him spiritual sight. 
In doing so, He revealed Himself by His divine 
name, as He asked, " Dost thou believe on the Son 
John 9: 35-38 of God ?" And when the man, groping for the 
truth, inquired, " Who is he, Lord, that I might 
believe on him?" the answer came, " Thou hast both 



HOMAGE AND HONORS. 73 

seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee." And 
the man believed and worshipped Him. It was 
divine honor : and Jesus accepted it. 

When Lazarus died, and Jesus spake those won- 
derful words which none but God may speak, " I 
am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead yet shall he live; and 
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die " — words which have ever been the comfort of 
God's trusting people: — when Jesus spake these 
words, Martha replied, "I believe that thou art John 11:27. 
the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus had gently 
reproved her for being troubled over household 
cares ; but there is no rebuke when she honors Him 
with a divine name. And He proves Himself 
worthy of it by performing a divine work. 

The darkness of Golgotha was past : the brightness 
of Easter had come; the women had gone to the 
sepulchre with spices, but they found an empty Matt. 28: 6-9. 
grave. The angel was there with the message, " He 
is risen;" and they ran with the joyful news to the 
disciples. And as they made haste, they met Jesus ; 
and casting themselves down, they held Him by the 
feet and worshipped Him. It was the deepest, 
purest adoration of the heart ; and Jesus owned it. 

And when the eventide had come, the disciples 
were gathered where the doors were shut — for they 
feared the Jewish rage: and Jesus stood in their 
midst. But Thomas was not there. And latter, 
when they told him that they had seen the Lord, he 
would not believe it. The second Easter day came : 
the disciples were with one accord in one place : Jesus 



74 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

stood in their midst : and Thomas was there. And 
with the clear evidence of Christ's personal presence 
— pierced hands and feet, pierced side — all doubt 
removed, and faith in place of doubt ; Thomas made 

John 20: 28. confession of His name, "My Lord and my God." 
If Jesus were less than God and Lord, such idol- 
atrous homage would not have passed without 
rebuke. 

Again His disciples met Him in Galilee: they 
met Him there by His appointment. " And when 

Matt. 28: 17. they saw him, they worshipped him: but some 
doubted." There can be but one inference as to 
the nature of this worship: they worshipped Him 
as divine. The Apostolic life confirms its nature : 
the history of the Church substantiates it. They 
adored Him as God ; and He accepted their homage. 

The doctrine of St. Paul is so definite as to 
remove all doubt relative to the divine honors that 
should be paid to Christ : " God hath highly exalted 
Phii. 2: 9-n. him, and given him a name which is above every 
name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should 
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
things under the earth ; and that every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of 
God the Father." That surely should answer every 
doubt and shut off all debate. And it does — except 
in the case of men to whom it might be said as 
Jesus said to those who denied His Messianic claim, 
" Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." 
Nothing but rank infidelity can resist this testimony 
of the Apostle. 

The majesty of Christ is pictured by the Psalmist : 



HOMAGE AND HONOBS. 75 

"Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Psaim 2 : 7. 
thee." And when He became the first-born among 
many brethren, the command was given, " Let all Heb. 1 : 6. 
the angels of God worship him." Can man with- 
hold his praise while angels adore His name? He 
almighty to save, as He saved Peter from the waves 
— shall He not have the deepest devotion of our 
hearts ! 

At the last day, when the Lion of the tribe of 
Juda, the Root of David, shall prevail, the hosts of 
heaven shall sing the new song, " Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, Rev. 5: 12, 14 
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing:" and the four and twenty elders shall fall 
down and worship Him. At His birth, kings came 
and laid their treasures at His infant feet. In His 
ministry of heavenly might, divine honors were 
shown Him by those who experienced the omnipo- 
tence of His love. As He sits on the throne of His 
glory, prayer goes up continually in His name for 
the benefits of His saving grace. And at last, the 
whole created host shall sound His praise, " Bless- 
ing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him 
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for 
ever and ever." Christ on the throne: the universe 
at His feet, filled with wonder, love, and praise. 

And all this is the more significantly remarkable in 
view of the fact that, under the Mosaic code, idolatry 
was so abhorrent. The chosen people grew into 
so deep a consciousness of its guilt and were so 
sensitive to it, that the least tendency toward it, the 
least manifestation of it, was treated as the grossest 



76 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

form of blasphemy. It was the one point where 
they shunned the very appearance of evil. We 
have abundant evidence of this in the Holy 
Scriptures. 

There was the case of Cornelius — that devout 
man who feared God with all his house. He was 
instructed, through a vision, to send for Peter, who 
should tell him what he ought to do. And when 
Peter came, Cornelius fell down at his feet and 
worshipped him. But Peter bade him rise, saying, 

Acts io: 26. " Stand up; I myself also am a man." More 
than once, Peter had seen such honor bestowed upon 
his Master: and his Master accepted it. But Peter 
would not accept it. He knew he was human; he 
was certain that his Master was divine. As a man, 
he would not dare to receive divine honors; but he 
knew that divine honors belonged to Christ because 
His nature was divine. Peter knew his place : what 
was equally important, he knew Christ's place and 
the honors that belonged to it. 

A thrilling incident is furnished us in the case of 
Barnabas and Paul. It happened at Lystra. Paul 
had wrought a miracle. And when the people saw 
it, they lifted up their voice, saying, " The gods are 

Acts H: 8-18. come down to us in the likeness of men." Then 
the priest of Jupiter brought oxen and garlands to 
the city gates and was about to offer sacrifice. And 
when Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they rent 
their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying 
out, " Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are 
men of like passions with you, and preach unto you 
that ye should turn from these vanities unto the 
living God." This Paul who said that at the name 



HOMAGE AND HONORS. 77 

of Jesus every knee should bow, and who himself 
bowed the knee to Jesus, is shocked at the prospect 
of divine honors being accorded him, as though he 
were the Mercury of the Grecian myths. He was 
there to establish the worship of Christ and lead men 
to adore His name. 

When John was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, 
he received those marvellous revelations of the last 
times. And he fell down to worship before the 
feet of the angel which had shown him these things. 
And the angel said unto him, " See thou do it not ; Rev. 22: 
for I am thy fellowservant, and of the brethren the 
prophets, and of them that keep the sayings of this 
book: worship God." Men refused divine honors; 
angels refused divine honors ; Christ accepted divine 
honors. And why? Men and angels are servants 
of God: they dare not usurp their Master's place. 
Jesus Christ is God : He is entitled to the honors that 
belong to God. He claimed them: He received 
them. Every knee must bow to Him : every tongue 
must confess His name : all men must honor Him 
even as they honor the Father. The very fact that 
men and angels refused divine honors : the very fact 
that Christ accepted them, and men and angels ac- 
corded them, proves that in His mind, as well as 
theirs, He was divine. 

" Worship God." We worship God when we 
worship Christ. We cannot worship God without 
Christ ; for Christ's assurance is, " No man John 14 
cometh unto the Father but by me." We must pray 
to Him: we must pray through Him: we must ask 
the Father in His name. 



78 THE SEF ABATED LIFE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FACT OF MIRACLE. 



A 



T every point in the life of Christ, we touch 
the infinite ; and we cannot get away from it. 
There is no attempt, on His part, to produce 
such an effect : there is a perfect naturalness, a 
supreme simplicity, in word and act — a something 
that justifies the statement, " I am meek and lowly 
in heart." Sublimity is not an effort — it is an 
essence. And, throughout, the life of Christ was 
infinitely sublime. 

When man performs a work, he has machinery 
proportioned to it. Not so with God. " By the 
Ps.88: 6,9. word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all 
the host of them by the breath of his mouth:" 
" For he spake, and it was done ; he commanded, 
and it stood fast." And the divine is manifest in 
all the works of Christ. He commanded the winds 
and the sea : they stood still at His rebuke. He bade 
the devils depart : they obeyed His voice. At His 
word, sickness fled: at His call, life came back. 
Almighty virtue went forth in speech and look and 
touch, miraculous in effect. He claimed it; His 
disciples testified to it ; His enemies acknowledged it. 

The record is, " And Jesus went about all Galilee, 

Matt. 4: 23, 24 teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the 

Gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of 

sickness and all manner of disease among the people. 



THE FACT OF MIRACLE. 79 

And they brought unto him all sick people that were 
taken with divers diseases and torments, and those 
which were possessed with devils, and those which 
were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he 
healed them." Is this record true — this record of 
miracle ? Let us examine the evidence. 

Jesus claimed it to be true — He who said, " I am 
the way, the Truth, and the Life." When John 
sent his disciples with the question, " Art thou he 
that should come? or look we for another?" Jesus 
answered, "Go your way, and tell John what Luke 7: 22. 
things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind 
see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf 
hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is 
preached." When Jesus warned His disciples 
against the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Sad- 
ducees, they said among themselves, " It is because 
we have taken no bread." Then came that gentle 
rebuke, " O ye of little faith : do ye not yet under- Matt. 16: 9, 10 
stand, neither remember the five loaves of the five 
thousand, and how many baskets ye took up ? neither 
the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how 
many baskets ye took up?" He upbraided the 
cities, because they did not repent when they saw 
the mighty works He had done in their midst. Matt. 11:20-24 
He brought against His own people the weighty 
charge, "If I had not done among them the John 15 : 24. 
works which none other man did, they had not had 
sin ; but now have they both seen and hated both me 
and my Father." He sent the Pharisees to Herod with 
the message, " Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, Luke 13: 32, 
I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-mor- 
row, and the third day I shall be perfected." And 



80 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

He repeatedly referred to His miracles in general 
terms : as, for example, " Believe me that I am in 

John w: ii. the Father and the Father in me; or else believe 
me for the very works' sake." If Jesus' word is to 
be taken as evidence, we cannot get away from the 
conviction that He performed miracles and that 
these miracles, being performed in His own name, 
are proof of His almighty power. The stamp of 
God's method and God's might is upon them; and 
neither men nor devils can erase it. 

It was Jesus Himself who said, " If I bear witness 
of myself, my witness is not true." It was He, 
too, who quoted the Scripture, " The testimony of 
two men is true." In His case, we have the testi- 
mony of men whose knowledge of Him should be a 
guarantee of the truth of what they say: men who 
were not warped in their judgment by an over- 
enthusiastic acceptance of His utterances , or an 
undue measurement of His acts. It was a master 
in Israel — a man who was not carried away by the 
impulse of the moment : it was no less a man than 
Nicodemus — a cautious, calculating man — who came 
to Jesus by night and frankly confessed, " Rabbi, 

Johns: 2. we know that thou art a teacher come from God ; 
for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, 
except God be with him." And when the multitude 
resorted to Him and saw His miracles, they said, 

John io: 4i. "John did no miracle; but all things that John 
spake of this man were true." It is these historical 
facts — and facts such as these — that gave Peter the 
basis of his argument on the day of Pentecost, " Ye 

Acts 2 : 21-24. men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of 
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by 



THE FACT OF MIRACLE 81 

miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by 
him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know : 
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and 
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked 
hands have crucified and slain : whom God hath 
raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because 
it was not possible that he should be holden of it." 
If the testimony of history, substantiated by eyewit- 
nesses, has any value, these words should carry 
weight. 

Even those who were hostile to Christ, acknow- 
ledged His miraculous power and were dumbfounded 
before it. As they stood around the grave of Laza- 
rus, where Jesus wept ; some of them said with a tone 
of evident disparagement, "Could not this man which 
opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even John ii: 37. 
this man should not have died?" The raising of 
Lazarus, so near the Holy City, was Jesus' crowning 
offence. And so, the chief priests and the Pharisees 
gathered a council and said, " What do we ? for this 
man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, 
all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall John 11:47, 48 
come and take away both our place and nation." 
And when He hung upon the Cross, the rulers de- 
rided Him, and the people joined their voices, " He 
saved others ; let him save himself, if he be Christ, Luke 23: 35. 
the chosen of God." There surely is something con- 
firmatory in acknowledgments such as these. 

And yet, there are men who say, There is no such 
thing as a miracle. Atheism, as a matter of course, 
teaches that there are no miracles ; because, if there 
is no God, there is no infinite Person with a motive 



82 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

to work by exceptional modes. In this way, God is 
ruled out of the universe; the almightiness and un- 
changeableness of natural law takes His place; and 
men are driven to the deification of dust. There 
are those, again, whose philosophy owns an infinite, 
eternal Agent; but they claim that His very infinity 
excludes all finite acts, and that His very eternity 
excludes all temporal acts. And so, if we were to 
admit their premises, we would be driven to conclude 
that the conception of Revelation, as well as miracle, 
is an impossible one. All this, however, is purely 
speculative : it is philosophic inference — " a juggle 
born of the brain :" moreover, it has . no basis in 
human consciousness or in fact: it certainly has no 
foundation in Scripture. 

It is only the fool that saith in his heart, " There 
is no God ;" while he who shuts God up to infinities, 
shuts Him out of this earth and away from every 
creature that moves upon it. With all such specu- 
lation, the true follower of Christ has neither part 
nor lot : those who advocate such things have a 
different spirit from that of Christ. If God moves 
within the limit of natural law, He is a finite crea- 
ture: He is not a free agent. If God is simply a 
supreme originating cause, then an unchanging and 
unchangeable fate awaits every creature He has 
made. The former degrades God : the latter de- 
grades man, whom God has made in His own image. 

There are great laws working with perfect uni- 
formity throughout the universe. The stars keep 
their place ; the earth revolves in regular metre ; sun 
and sphere move with mathematical exactness; the 
measurements of time and space are absolutely met : 



THE FACT OF MIRACLE. 83 

it is the miracle of nature with the Almightiness of 
God to work it. In a certain broad sense, where 
there is life, there is miraculous might — a might 
which overcomes and contravenes nature. Life is 
everywhere superior to Law. According to the law 
of gravitation, everything should lie prone upon the 
earth : if fluid, it seeks the lowest possible level. The 
spar floats with the current: the straw is carried 
before the breeze. So much for dead substance. 
Not so in the case of the living creature. The man 
stands erect upon this globe : the fowl soars above it. 
The fish swims against the stream : the bee flies in the 
face of the wind. In these and countless other cases, 
the law of nature is not set aside; it is not held in 
abeyance : it is still operative, still active. But a new 
power has come in — a new cause has intervened and 
given new results. It is the miracle of living might. 
These are finite things : they occur in a finite way : 
they are going on all the time. And so, while the 
miracle-act is there, the wonder-part of it is gone. 
Let us turn to infinities. Is God's almightiness evi- 
dent only in the creation and control of the universe? 
And shall He not be able, in all the cycles of time, to 
stretch forth His invisible hand and give special 
motion to individual things, with special visible 
effects? Must He who moves in the infinitude of 
His almightiness : must He bind Himself down to the 
limits of an unchanging Law ; while every motion of 
man and beast, of fowl and creeping thing, is a 
miracle of finite might, in open defiance of natural 
law and superior to it ? Surely, God is not thus the 
slave of His own creation : God is not thus inferior to 
His own creatures ! 



84 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

The age of miracle is not past : we are living in 
the midst of it. Every prayer a man breathes, is a 
confession of faith as to the possibility of divine 
interference with the natural course of events: it 
expresses an implied conviction that God will inter- 
pose some blessed providence that man craves, and 
change the trend of life to satisfy the longing of the 
heart. Moses prayed; and the hand that was lifted 

Ex.32: 11-14. to blot out his people, came down with a benedic- 
tion upon the sinning host. Hannah prayed and 

i Sam. i : io. wept sore : and she inherited a promise. Heze- 

ii Kings 20:s kiah prayed; and fifteen years were added to his 
life. The prophet prayed; and it rained not on the 
earth by the space of three years and six months : 

Jas. 5 : 17, is. again he prayed ; and the heavens gave rain and 
the earth brought forth her fruit. The Church 

Acts 12 : 5. prayed ; and an angel came down and smote off 
Peter's chains, and the man went forth free. These 
are the prayer miracles of Bible times. 

Man, by nature, is a praying creature. Deep in 
his soul is settled the unwavering conviction, There 
is a God who hears and answers prayer: and the 
combined philosophies of all ages have not been able 
to smother it or to train him out of it. When we go 
to God in prayer, what do we do, in point of fact, 
but ask Him to perform a miracle? And if every- 
thing comes in the course of nature, according to the 
fixed laws that control it: if nothing occurs outside 
of pure natural courses, which an eternal law has 
predetermined for all time; then man's native con- 
viction is a cheat and a snare, and prayer is the 
supreme folly of human life. No providence, no 
prayer, is the inevitable. Shall we suffer our- 



THE FACT OF MIRACLE. 85 

selves to be driven to this blank alternative — this 
God-emptied blackness of ashes? That is where 
the denial of miracles drives us : that is where it 
would make shipwreck of our lives. 

The miracles of Christ were performed that men 
might believe that He is the Christ, the Son of John 20: si. 
God; and that believing they might have life through 
His name. That is the primary purpose; and we 
must not lose sight of it. But there is a secondary 
purpose of scarcely less importance. The miracles 
of Christ were special providential acts, rising above 
the natural course of events. They were performed 
in answer to prayer, whether of the lips or of the 
heart. They were direct, visible, outward acts — the 
incarnated answer of the incarnate Christ, the pledge 
of the fulfilment of the promise, " If ye shall ask John 14 : 14. 
anything in my name, I will do it." If no miracle 
had ever been performed, or there were no possi- 
bility of its performance, then no prayer would ever 
well up from the human heart. But the universal 
consciousness that there is a special providence in 
life above the control of the ordinary course of 
nature; the conviction that God " doeth accord- Daniel 4 : 85. 
ing to his will in the army of heaven and among 
the inhabitants of the earth," and that the miracles 
of Christ are proof of it: it is this that enables us 
to come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we 
may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of 
need. " Let us hold fast the profession of our faith 
without wavering; for he is faithful that promised." 

And then, as to that primary purpose of the mir- 
acles of Christ : That we might believe that He is the 



86 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Son of God, and that believing, we might have life 
through His name. The Son of God ! And who is 
the Son of God, according to Scripture, but God 
the Son! The acts of finite creatures are finite: 
the acts of Christ were infinite. Performed in His 
own name, by His inherent might, they prove Him 
to be the Infinite One. To deny His miracles is to 
deny His omnipotence: nay more, to deny His 
miracles is to deny His common honesty of life: it 
is to brand Him as a false prophet and His disciples 
as men full of hypocrisies and lies. To own His 
miracles, is to own His almighty power: it is to 
acknowledge Him as the Almighty One. 

And there our faith rests : there our comfort lies. 
Christ the omnipotent One, stooping to our estate 
to lift us up to heavenly seats: His almightiness 
manifest in miracles of nature; His almightiness 
assured in miracles of grace. It is this that forti- 
fies oar hearts: it is this that enables us to com- 
prehend His miracle of saving might, and to confess, 
" I know that my Redeemer lives." 



THE SAVING MIGHT. 87 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SAVING MIGHT. 

THE acts of God are an expression of His attri- 
butes. Wisdom, love, might, are everywhere 
exhibited in boundless measure : they every- 
where co-operate to beneficent ends. Creation, 
Redemption, Sanctification : these are rooted and 
grounded there. And in their outaction, Jesus 
Christ holds central place. His earth-existence, 
therefore, had a definite purpose: it linked the two 
eternities. A special era marked His advent: it 
became the center-point of the ages; while all the 
universe circles about it. 

The fact of Christ is a certified fact. His birth 
and death, His resurrection and ascension — these 
cannot be pushed aside. They have their historic 
place: they have their separate office and effect. 
And that office and effect are not along natural 
lines ; they are not of the ordinary sort : they are 
separate from all else. Jesus Christ was not simply 
a great teacher and a great example of moral life — 
a mere model of moral excellence. He was, indeed, 
all that; but He was infinitely more. It is a signi- 
cant fact that He treated the moral aspect of His 
own life as a passing part of His earthly existence : 
it was not the essential purpose for which He 
came. The Son of God was not manifest that we 
might merely have a perfect example of moral 



88 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

excellence. He gives as the sum and substance of 
His incarnate state, " I am come that they might 
John io: io. have life." And the disciples in all their teaching 
and writing and preaching put the Cross first — His 
reconciling work there. The blood of atonement 
holds first place. 

It has become the habit of our times, even among 
those who acknowledge the redeeming work of 
Christ and base all upon it, to overshadow it by His 
works of mercy and love. In preaching the brother- 
hood of man through the loving life of Christ, they 
lose sight of the brotherhood of man through the 
sacrificial death of Christ. Thus the great redemp- 
tive act is obscured by the over-emphasis, in a funda- 
mental sense, of mere moral qualities. This is the 
first step toward the dethronement of Christ. It 
degrades the Church to a cult with Christ as the 
incarnation of moral principles. Thus the code of 
Christ, and not the blood of Christ, becomes the 
source of saving grace. One more shift of the 
scenes, and men will have the cult without Christ. 
The movement is on foot : and should it be realized, 
as some fondly hope, then Christ will be eliminated 
even from moral life. 

It is high time, therefore, that the place which 
Jesus occupies in the Christian system should be 
pointed out and emphasized and urged anew : we 
dare not lose sight of it. The blood of the atone- 
ment, the sacrifice for sin, the Cross with its glory 
and shame : these are foundation stones. It is a sad 
outcome when men build thereon wood, hay and 
stubble. But what of those who tear up the very 
foundation, cast it aside, and make wood, hay and 



THE SAVING MIGHT. 89 

stubble the basic part? What universal ruin when 
the besom of destruction sweeps over it! 

The saving merit of Christ lies at the foundation 
of the Christian system. Whoever denies it, denies 
the evident teaching of Christ and His Apostles: 
whoever rejects it, has no right to usurp the Chris- 
tian name. Like a pirate-ship, he floats a friendly 
flag that makes the innocent an easy prey. The 
saving office of Christ was proclaimed by the 
prophets: it was preached by the Apostles. It 
answers to man's need: it accords with God's love. 
It is the only thing that gives consistency and sense 
to the marvellous setting of Christ's life. 

The prophetic word was uttered long before the 
Advent : " Surely he hath borne our griefs and 
carried our sorrows : he was wounded for our isa. et> , 4-6. 
transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: 
the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
with his stripes we are healed: the Lord hath laid 
on him the iniquity of us all." These words sound 
as if they had been written by a humble penitent 
at the foot of the cross — one who came and laid 
his soul-burden there. And throughout, it is the 
evident teaching of the Old Testament, "Thou isa. 53: 10. 
shalt make his soul an offering for sin." The pro- 
pitiation of Christ is there promised in exact terms; 
while the whole round of sacrifice under the Mosaic 
code has no significance without it. It was but the 
shadow of good things to come ; and its culmination 
is declared in that sublime sentence, " Christ our icor. 5: 7,8. 
Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep 
the feast." 



90 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

As we open the New Testament, the first fact 
that faces us is the fact of Christ's saving might. 
It is an angel that speaks : he brings a message to 
Joseph relative to his espoused wife: "She shall 

Matt. i:2i. bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name 
Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins." 
It had been revealed to Simeon that he should not 
see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 
And on the day of the Presentation, when he came 
by the Spirit into the Temple, and took the child 
Jesus in his arms, his prayer implies the truth that 
the angel spoke, " Mine eyes have seen thy salva- 

Luke2: 30,31 tion which thou hast prepared before the face of 
all people." A like revelation came to John the 
Baptist — he who cried, " Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord, make his paths straight." Pointing to Jesus, 
he fixed on him all human hope : " Behold, the 

John 1:29. Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
world." These all clearly declare the propitiatory 
work of Christ — salvation through His atoning 
sacrifice. 

In that notable interview with Nicodemus, Jesus 
declares the real office of His advent : " God so 

Johns.- 16,17 loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish but have everlasting life: For God sent not 
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but 
that the world through him might be saved." And 
in that beautiful chapter which tells us of His 
shepherd-love, His saving office as well as His 
shepherd care finds a place, " I am the good shep- 

Johnl0:14,15, herd .- « J } ay down my Hfe for the s h ee p :" " I 

give unto them eternal life." And elsewhere He 



THE SAVING MIGHT. 91 

makes the specific statement, " The Son of Man Matt, is: n 
is come to save that which was lost." And still more 
specific are His words, " The Son of Man came Matt. 20:28. 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to 
give his life a ransom for many." These are broad 
hints of the redemptive act. Viewed from the 
Cross, they are unmistakable. And they confirm 
the faith of the patriarchal age, "I have found Job 33: 24. 
an atonement." Jesus, therefore, had a clear view 
of the crowning purpose of His life; and so He 
moved steadfastly toward Calvary's Height, where 
He would accomplish it. And in anticipation of it, 
with all its saving significance, He instituted the 
Holy Supper, the Passover of the New Covenant: 
and His solemn words were these, "This is my Matt. 26: 28. 
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for 
many for the remission of sins." 

" My blood : shed for the remission of sins !" So 
Jesus said : and it was so shortly before they nailed 
Him to the accursed tree! But men of the new 
cult deny it. They will tell you that you are not 
saved by the blood of Jesus: they assure you that 
you are saved by your own character. Here, then, 
is conflict. And whom shall we believe? Whom 
shall we trust? Shall Jesus' truth and promise go 
for nought? Shall we not rather adapt the words 
of St. Paul and say, Let Christ be true, but every 
man a liar! Christ against the world, if need be! 
But Christ does not stand alone. The prophets 
were with Him: the Apostles were with Him: the 
Holy Church throughout all the world is with Him. 
And who is against Him? The infidel, the agnos- 
tic, the whole crowd of little cults that overflow with 



92 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Pharisaic conceits : these are against Him ; these 
deny what He so manifestly declares. And against 
these we must be on our guard; for they come as 
angels of light, and they would deceive, if possible, 
the very elect. 



The blood of the covenant was the theme of the 
Old Testament: the blood of the covenant is the 
theme of the New. The former was the shadow; 
the latter is the substance. The remission of sins 
through the Crucified One was the climax of Pente- 
cost. And from that day, the Cross became the 
gateway into the kingdom of Christ. It was the 
conviction of the Apostles that " There is none 

Acts 4: 12. other name under heaven given among men 
whereby we must be saved," except the name of the 
crucified One. At the house of Cornelius, Peter 
closed his sermon with these words, " To him give 

Acts io: 43. all the prophets witness that through his name., 
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission 
of sins." The same Apostle, in his defence of the 
Gentile converts, declared the perfect equality of all 
men under the Gospel of Christ : " We believe that 

Acts 15: n. through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we 
shall be saved, even as they." And later, when the 
keeper of the prison cried out, " What must I do to 
be saved?" the united answer of the Apostles was, 

Acts 16: 31. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
be saved, and thy house." So Christ taught; so the 
Holy Ghost inspired the Apostles to teach; so the 
Christian Church believes and teaches: she is built 



THE SAVING MIGHT, 93 

upon the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ Him- 
self being the chief Cornerstone. 

If we turn to the Epistles, the evidence is over- 
whelming. Salvation by faith in the crucified One, 
is the truth that underlies the entire system of Apos- 
tolic doctrine. St. Paul is very definite on this point 
— he who determined not to know anything among 
men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He says 
that we are " justified freely by his grace through Rom. 8: 24. 
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." And in 
the same letter, he covers the whole round of re- 
deeming love in words as comforting as they are 
faithful and true, "God commendeth his love Rom. 5: 8, 9. 
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us : much more, then, being now justified by 
his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through 
him." And once again, he lays down the definite 
rule, " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Rom. 10 : 9. 
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God 
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." 
And so, not by works of righteousness which we 
have done ; but according to His mercy God saves us. 
And the mercy of God finds the way of its exercise 
through the merit of Christ. 

This is the uniform teaching of the great Apostle 
to the Gentiles. At one time he says, " God was ncor.5: 19. 
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." At 
another time, he says that our Lord Jesus Christ 
" gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver Gai. 1 : 4. 
us from this present evil world." He goes back to 
the redeeming source when he writes, "Christ Gai. s:i5. 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 



94 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is 
every one that hangeth on a tree." And he but 
rounds out the thought when he declares that in 
Him " we have redemption through his blood, 

Eph. i:7. the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches 
of his grace." The same eternal truth is every- 
where in evidence : " God hath not appointed us to 

iThess. 5: 9. wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus 
Christ;" " This is a faithful saying that Christ Jesus 

i Tim. i: 15. came into the world to save sinners:" "There 
is one God and one mediator between God and 

i Tim. 2: 5, 6. men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a 
ransom for all, to be testified in due time." In 
short, in order to rule out the doctrine of salvation 
by blood, we must rule Jesus Christ out of the 
Scriptures. And then salvation by character will 
take the place of salvation by Christ! What a 
wretched substitute ! 

"The blood of Christ;" "the blood of the ever- 
lasting covenant :" these are not empty forms of 
speech; they deal with a great eternal fact. They 
are the basis of the blessed assurance that Christ 

Titus 2: H. " gave himself for us, that he might redeem us 
from all iniquity." And under all conditions of 
life, we can comfort ourselves with the universal 
scope of the redemptive act; for the record is that 

Heb. 2: 9. Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for 
every man; and it is individualized by the same 
Apostle when he speaks of the unchangeable priest- 
hood of Christ, " Wherefore he is able also to save 

Heb. 7 : 25. them to the uttermost that come unto God by 
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for 



THE SAVING MIGHT. 95 

them." And so all our hope lies in what St. Peter 
writes to the Churches, " Ye know that ye were iPet.i:i8,i9 
not redeemed with corruptible things; but with the 
precious blood of Christ." Therefore we confi- 
dently conclude with the beloved disciple, "The uohni:7. 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." 

It seems strange that men should doubt or deny 
this foundation doctrine. It is plainly stated in 
Scripture: it plainly meets the deepest need of the 
soul. But these are the very points at which men 
stumble. They do not believe the Scriptures : they 
think they are able to save themselves. They praise 
the ethics of Christ: they cull from the Bible its 
beautiful moral precepts; and out of these they 
would build up the fabric of their lives. They teach 
the evolution of the religious instinct — its incarna- 
tion in word and act. The doctrine of self-suffi- 
ciency once in the heart, there is no place for Christ 
there. Every man thus becomes his own Christ. 

And men point to character without Christ and 
ask, Can character in Christ show better results? 
What shall we answer ? How make plain the differ- 
ence? There is a natural life and a spiritual life. 
And there are natural morals and spiritual morals. 
In outward form, it may be difficult to distinguish 
them: in essence, however, they are distinct. We 
have a physical life that is common to all earth 
creatures ; but we are more than beasts. We have a 
natural moral life that is common to all men ; but 
that does not limit the Christian life to nature. The 
goodness of the Christian life is different from the 
goodness of the natural life: they spring from a 



96 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

different source; they have a different quality, a 
different motive; they are different everywhere 
except in outward appearance. Every animal loves 
its offspring; but animal love is not the same as 
human love. A mother's love is not a creature- 
love. We unphilosophic souls may not be able to 
define the difference; but we know it exists. 

And there is just as great a difference between 
Christian love and natural human love; between 
Christian morals and natural human morals. Chris- 
tian love, which is the basis of the Christian moral 
life, is the fruit of the Holy Ghost in the heart : 
natural love, and the natural morals that spring 
from it, is the outgrowth of the natural heart. They 
are as distinct from each other as animal love is 
distinct from human love. The love and the moral 
life that does not spring from the Holy Ghost in 
the heart, is natural love: the love of God in the 
heart is by the Holy Ghost — it is there by the medi- 
tation of Christ. 

Let us, then, not confound natural morals with 
Christian morals — in particular, where natural 
morals have the influence of the Church of Christ to 
mould them. Above all, let us remember that neither 
of them saves. Let us cling to the uniform testimony 
of the Apostles, "God hath appointed us to obtain sal- 

i Thess. 5: 9. vation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us." 
Let us cling to what the universal Church confesses, 

The Nicene " I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ : who for us 
creed. men an( j f or our sa ] va tion came down from 
heaven : and was made man : and was crucified also 
for us under Pontius Pilate." 



THE CENTRAL LIFE. 97 

CHAPTER X. 

THE CENTRAL LIFE. 

THERE have been great teachers in the past: 
men whose glory streamed with a glowing 
light; men who have been the wonder of each 
succeeding age. These men have had a message for 
mankind — philosophic, religious, scientific : and 
while temples have mingled with the dust and em- 
pires have passed away; their teachings have sur- 
vived the ravages of time; they have been studied 
and admired from age to age ; and whatever of truth 
they contain still holds a place in mind and heart. 
The imperishableness of truth : how it lives in spite of 
rack and stake, of jeer and gibe. " Truth crushed 
to earth shall rise again" — for truth is of God: 
and so, " The eternal years of God are her's." And 
that is why some very poor systems of religion and 
philosophy survive: there is just enough truth in 
them to keep them alive. The truth within them is 
the salt that saves. If that should lose its savor, 
then all would be lost. 

It has become the habit of our time to class Christ 
among the great teachers of the past — the greatest 
of all the great, the most perfect possible. They 
tell us of Buddha in India, of Confucius in China, of 
Plato and Aristotle in Greece, of Mohammed in 
Arabia: wonderful men of wonderful knowledge, 
who established religions and proclaimed philo- 
sophies that have swayed the universe of thought, 



98 THE SEPARATED LIFE 

and whose powers are still the magnet of untold 
multitudes. These men — and men like these — were 
great : they did great things for their times and for 
all succeeding time : giants were they in intellect, 
and, in some instances, in moral precept and culture. 
They sit throned and crowned while this world 
lasts : nothing can dim the glory of their lives along 
the line of manly excellence, mental equipment, or 
noble achievement. 

And yet, Jesus is as distinct from them as day is 
from night. He is the sun, the source of light: 
they are but stars — stars of the first magnitude, let 
us grant, beautiful, glorious, bright; but their light 
is a borrowed one. And they knew it : and they 
taught in view of it. And that is where the differ- 
ence lies : that is what sets Christ in a class alone. 
Sages, philosophers, founders of religions, always 
pointed to objective truth, objective fact. The 
center of their religion and philosophy was outside 
of themselves : it never centered in their life — not 
in a single case. But Jesus made Himself the 
center of His teaching : He stood forth as the great 
eternal, original source from whom all things come 
and in whom all things combine. That is the 
marvel of it. And that is what separates Him from 
the good and great of all time. A running review 
of the central place He holds in His teachings will 
convince anyone of this broad difference. The 
instances, with briefest comment, would fill a 
volume: let us be content with a few of the most 
striking cases. 

In that remarkable chapter where Jesus gives 



THE CENTRAL LIFE. 99 

testimony concerning John, and then upbraids the 
cities for their impenitence, He gives thanks to the 
Father that the revelation of grace, despised by the 
wise and the prudent, is made manifest unto babes. 
And then He seems to get a vision of the great 
struggling, sorrowing mass of humanity; and 
stretching out His hands, as if the whole suffering 
world stood within the sound of His voice, He 
appeals in tenderest tone, " Come unto me all ye Matt.ii:28-8o 
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you 
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for 
I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find 
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my 
burden is light." This is no human call: this is no 
human promise. The disciples of Christ, since the 
day He uttered this sublime sentiment, have found 
in it comfort and peace; not merely because it is a 
sentiment that suits their souls' estate, but because 
it is God's promise and they were convinced that 
Christ, as a faithful God, would fulfil it. If Christ 
is not divine, these words are hollow mockery : they 
trifle with the weary weight of woe : they mock at 
our burdens and our cares. 

The people sought Jesus because they saw the 
miracles and ate of the loaves. Hence the appeal, 
" Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for John 6:26-60. 
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." 
Then came the demand for a sign and reference to 
the manna in the wilderness, the murmuring and the 
rebuke. And then came these words, " I am the 
bread of life: He that cometh to me shall never 
hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never 



100 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

thirst: I am that bread of life: I am the living 
bread which came down from heaven ; if any man eat 
of this bread, he shall live for ever." It is written 
that from that time many of His disciples went back 
and walked with Him no more. It is a sad record: 
yet their conduct, in a measure, commands our 
respect. Jesus had made Himself the source and 
center of faith and life — the life of their life: He 
claimed God's place! And these men, denying His 
Godhead, turned from Him as one who blasphemed 
God's name and usurped God's office. If Jesus was 
but a man, their conduct was consistent. They 
were nobler than Judas who kissed his Master with 
treacherous intent: nobler than men who claim to 
admire Christ but turn His truth into a lie. We 
must do one of two things: we must either accept 
Christ as God manifest in the flesh, or else go 
back to the beggarly elements of the world and 
walk with Him no more. 

In the midst of His ministry, Jesus lifted up His 
voice in the Temple and said, " I am the light of 
John 8: 12. the world : he that followeth me shall not walk 
in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The 
light of life — this natural light of this natural life 
— comes from the sun, the center of our universe; 
it is the great generating source of light and life. 
And now, when Jesus claims that He is the source 
of life, He makes Himself the eternal center of 
spiritual light and life. That were a monstrous 
claim for any man to make : man whose breath is in 
his nostrils, whose days are as grass! Could 



THE CENTRAL LIFE. 101 

rational man say, " I am the light of the world : he 
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but 
shall have the light of life!" And yet, the man 
Jesus said it. No wonder the Jews stoned Him from 
their presence : He had made Himself God ; and such 
a pretence could not pass without rebuke. The old 
alternative, therefore, is before us: Is He God? 
Then let us worship Him. Is He but a man ? Then 
He hath spoken blasphemies: let Him be crucified! 
There is no escape : the one or the other must end 
the case. 

The same thought underlies His declaration of 
shepherd care: " I am the good shepherd, and Jonnio:i4. 
know my sheep and am known of mine/' Himself 
the center, and none else ! There can not be two 
centers to the same sphere. And nowhere is this 
truth more manifest than when He wept at Lazarus' 
grave and called him back to life : the human and the 
divine meeting in the tenderness and the almighti- 
ness of love. He had said, " I am the resurrec- John n: 25, 26 
tion and the life ; he that believeth in me though he 
were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die." The resur- 
rection and the life — the power over the grave and 
the power of eternal existence: that power, said 
Jesus, is Mine : it is inherent in Me : I am the 
Resurrection and the Life. He proves that He is 
the resurrection by calling Lazarus from the grave : 
and we believe that He is the life; because He who 
is almighty in deed is almighty in truth and love: 
His words are truth as well as spirit and life. 



102 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

The last days were drawing nigh: the Cross was 
in sight: it now became the central theme. It was 
on one of those days that Christ uttered the remark- 
able words which signified what death He should die : 

John 12: 32. " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me." Is this an expression of self-cen- 
tered human pride ? Does an overwrought imagina- 
tion make Him fancy that He is the Supreme One? 
It must be, if modern thought is true. But modern 
thought is human thought : and human thought that 
soars on human wings, at last plunges from the 
unnatural height and perishes. It is the story of 
Lucifer — him who fell like lightning from above! 
Poor modern thought: what a very husk it is with- 
out Christ in it ! 

" And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto 
me." These are not mortal words : they fit not 
mortal lips. We bow in wonder and amaze before 
their utterance; for it is God's message, and it 
declares the wonders of His grace. It reminds us 
of what the Apostle says, when he tells us that 
Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of 
the Cross : " Wherefore, God also hath highly 

pwi. 2: 9-n. exalted him, and given him a name which is above 
every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth; and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father." Here, as everywhere else, 
the teaching of the Apostle harmonizes exactly with 
that of Christ. 



THE CENTRAL LIFE. 103 

It may safely be assumed that there is nothing in 
all the declarations of Christ that has brought 
greater comfort to sorrowing hearts, than the tender 
words with which He tried to cheer His disciples. 
They were cast down at the thought of His depar- 
ture. He saw their inner depths, and the conflict 
there: the fainting spirit, the wavering spirit — they 
could not hide it from His all-searching eye. And 
the spirit of heaviness melts as He gives them a 
vision of heavenly certitudes, " Let not your heart 
be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me. John a •. 1-3. 
In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were 
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a 
place for you : and if I go and prepare a place for 
you, I will come again and receive you unto 
myself, that where I am there ye may be also." The 
vision was too boundless for their poor eyes : but 
what comfort, what hopes, what cheer, it would 
inspire ! 

And who would dare to put into our hearts a 
doubt as to the truth of these words and the assur- 
ance they give? Jesus stands, the very Cross in 
sight; and He makes Himself — Faith in Him, Faith 
in what He does, Faith in what He pledges to do: 
He makes Himself the center of their comfort and 
of their hope — aye, the center of our comfort and 
hope. He does not say, " Hope thou in God :" He 
says, Hope in Me ! He does not say, " God is your 
refuge and strength:" He says, Trust Me; I go to 
prepare a place for you ; I will come again and take 
you home! What very Apples of Sodom He holds 
up before our eyes, unless He is almighty to do what 



104 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

He promises. And mark you, He promises this 
just before He goes forth to die. 

And when some of His disciples did not quite 
comprehend the full scope of what He had taught, 
He put His divine office beyond all doubt in those 
words so simple in form but so comprehensive in 
sense, " I am the way, the truth, and the life : no 
John 14: 6. man cometh unto the Father but by me." This 
is no human office : the place which Jesus here 
assumes, belongs to God and none else. This 
humble Nazarene, this meek and lowly one, makes 
Himself the Supreme One, the All in All; the Way, 
the Truth, the Life. And this agrees with the Apos- 
tolic doctrine, " There is one God and one mediator 
i Tim. 2:5. between God and men, the man Christ Jesus:" 
Acts 4: 12. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for 
there is none other name under heaven given among 
men, whereby we must be saved." And the justi- 
fication of this doctrine lies in the declarations of 
Christ who, in His teaching, lays claim to the divine 
attributes and proves each claim by a miracle pro- 
portioned to it. 

It is evident, therefore, that Jesus stands distinct 
from all teachers of all time. Not one of them, 
from the least unto the greatest, made himself the 
center of his science : every one pointed to what he 
regarded as the supreme objective principle. But 
Jesus made Himself that principle; and He declared 
it whenever He taught. He made Himself the 
infinite center : " Come unto Me ;" " I am the bread 
of life;" "Believe in Me." He thus set Himself 



THE CENTRAL LIFE. 105 

up as the central life — the source, the avenue, the 
support, of all spiritual life. And here is where He 
stands separate from teachers of every age. And 
He stands thus, because He was what the Evangelist 
pictured Him to be: "In him was life; and the John i: 4. 
life was the light of men." 

It is sometimes put forth as an argument, that 
Jesus nowhere states specificially that He is God: 
that the Church's doctrine as to His divine nature 
in the unity of the Father and the Holy Ghost, is but 
an inference. This is no argument : it is subterfuge : 
it is too shallow for serious thought. Does any 
teacher, moral or otherwise, go up and down the 
land proclaiming himself to be a man? The human 
element of his nature is manifest. He is a man of 
some sort, and everyone knows it : the attributes of 
a man are evident at every point. It was not neces- 
sary for Jesus to go about and proclaim, " I am 
God." In word and work, He gave evidence that 
the divine attributes were centered in Him — not 
inspired from without; but personal, inherent, an 
integral part of His nature. 

Take out of the New Testament every sentence 
that proclaims Christ to be God, and there is prac- 
tically nothing left : a few scattered moral precepts, 
a few scraps of disconnected history; and but little 
more. The Annunciation, the miraculous Concep- 
tion, the wonderful Birth; every miracle, every 
prophecy, every promise; the most of the parables, 
the most of the Passion scenes ; the Resurrection, the 
Ascension, the Pentecost: all torn out! What 
infidel hand would dare do it! And how utterly 



106 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

desolate we would be! Like Mary at the tomb, we 
would mourn out our heart's deep grief, " They 
John 20: 13. have taken away my Lord, and I know not where 
they have laid him/' And over the portals of our 
churches we would write: Crucified, Dead, Buried: 
Earth to earth, Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust — eternal 
dust! 

Shall we thus be robbed of our hope? Jesus 
preached Himself : in this He stands alone. The 
disciples preached Jesus : not a system of philosophy, 
not mere moral culture, not an objective principle 
outside of Christ: but Jesus the source of every 
moral principle, the center of life and light. And 
when He says, " I am the way, the truth, and the 
life " — it is God who speaks ; let men lay their hand 
upon their mouth and hold their peace ! 



THE RISEN CHRIST. 107 

CHAPTER XL 

THE RISEN CHRIST. 

THE resurrection of Christ is an assured fact. 
To deny it is to sweep aside every historic 
statement with respect to it. It is to brand 
the Apostles as the worst hypocrites that ever 
breathed out blasphemies, the most wretched dupes 
upon whom the world of artifice has ever imposed 
its trickeries, or the blindest fanatics that ever 
sacrificed themselves for an imaginary cause. These 
Apostles, supported by many infallible proofs, went 
forth everywhere with the Resurrection as their 
central theme. They staked their lives : aye, they 
suffered and died for it. Such fidelity to historic 
fact the world has witnessed nowhere else. It must 
have basis to it : it must have more than some sweet 
sentiment to inspire it. 

The enemies of the Cross of Christ are, to-day, 
massing their strength upon this point. As a rule, 
they are out-and-out evolutionists — the advocates of 
an hypothesis which has not a single settled fact of 
earth's earliest ages to warrant it and for which 
history does not furnish a scrap of evidence. And 
yet, they speak with authority: their word alone is 
infallible : their fiat makes the earth and peoples it. 
Away back in the infinitude of time — so they con- 
dently assert — there was an unaccountable accumula- 
tion of star-dust: within it, the potentiality of life. 
By countless makings and remakings, crossings and 



108 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

recrossings, from the primeval spore which grew 
and multiplied and differentiated into varieties, there 
came at last the period of ape-life, from which, by 
a process of natural selection, was evolved the pre- 
historic man. Instead of man being made a little 
lower than the angels, he was made a thousand and 
one degrees below the ape : instead of being a fallen 
creature, he is the survival of the fittest. If that 
be true, there is no need of an atonement : the death 
and resurrection of Christ would have no place in 
the development of the human race. That is what 
makes this theory so dangerous. There is not a 
settled fact of science to substantiate it; all history 
blankly contradicts it; but it has the glamour of 
learnedness, of profound research, of modernism: 
therein the infatuation lies. Let us hold fast to 
this principle : Whatever undermines a fundamental 
doctrine of Scripture, is false. 

The Resurrection is such a fundamental part of the 
divine plan that it was kept continually before the 
disciples. The shock of crucifixion would be so 
great, that it was absolutely necessary to give special 
emphasis to it. For the darkness of the grave 
would blot out all hope, and nothing but infallible 
proofs, backed by the remembrance of Christ's pro- 
mise that He would rise and go before them into 
Galilee, could quicken and confirm confidence as to 
its reality. They were soberminded men: no mere 
rumor could sway them. They must see His hands 
and His feet, and touch Him, and know of a surety 
that it was He and not a spirit. 



THE RISEN CHRIST. 109 

And so, early in His ministry Jesus spoke of His 
resurrection as an assured fact. When Peter ex- 
pressed the conviction of his heart, planted there by 
the Holy Ghost : " Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God :" that was the point at which the dis- 
ciples were prepared to have, in outline, the purpose 
of His advent and the chief events connected with it. 
And charging them that they should tell no man that 
He was the Christ, He began to show them " How Matt. 16: 21. 
that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many 
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, 
and be killed, and be raised again the third day." 
The scene on the Mount of Transfiguration was one 
of transcendent glory. Peter, James and John were 
witnesses to it. And as they came down, Jesus 
charged them, saying, " Tell the vision to no man, Matt. 17 : 9. 
until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead." 
And the further record is, " They kept that saying 
with themselves, questioning one with another what 
the rising from the dead should mean." 

As Jesus passed with His disciples through Galilee, 
He again foretold His death and resurrection : " The 
Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men, Mark 9: si. 
and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, 
he shall rise the third day." But they did not 
understand His saying and were afraid to ask Him. 
And finally, at the close of His ministry, He took 
His disciples apart, and He said unto them, " Behold, 
we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall Markiu:ss,34 
be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the 
scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and 



110 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

shall deliver him to the Gentiles; and they shall 
mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit 
upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day, he 
shall rise again." And on that last solemn night, 
so shortly before the betrayal, He applied to Himself 
the word of prophecy, " I will smite the Shepherd, 
Matt. 26: 31,32 and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered 
abroad." And then He gave the promise, "But after 
I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee." 
These prophecies of Christ had their terrible 
fulfilment : was that of the resurrection false ? Was 
it fashioned by the disciples to deceive the people? 
Was the hallucination so great that they would die 
for it? Was not the Resurrection, as Jesus 
prophesied, the closing of a series of events — real 
happenings in His life? What else could they be? 
unless the testimony of history, in all ages, is abso- 
lutely false. Surely the madness of opposition to 
Christ has not reached such a limit. 

Jesus suffered upon the Cross: history, sacred 
and profane, testifies to it : no one in right mind has 
ever denied it. We have so much solid fact. That 
He foretold His resurrection is admitted by His 
enemies. For the chief priests came to Pilate and 
said, " Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, 
Matt. 27: 63. while he was yet alive, After three days I will 
rise again." These words are significant. They 
are the certificate of Christ's death : they acknow- 
ledge the claim of Christ that He would rise from 
the dead. If that were all, that were enough to 
establish it. 



THE RISEN CHRIST. . Ill 

But that is not all. We have the testimony of 
the angel, " He is not here, but is risen : remember 
how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Luke 24:6-8, 
saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the 
hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third 
day rise again. And they remembered his words." 
We have the testimony of the risen Christ, as He 
stood in the midst of His disciples and said unto 
them, " Peace be unto you : Behold my hands and Luke 2 4 . 36, 
my feet, then it is I myself : handle me and see : for 89, 40> 46 - 
a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his 
hands and his feet." Then He opened their under- 
standing that they might understand the Scripture; 
and He said unto them, " Thus it is written, and thus 
it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the 
dead the third day." 

This is history: it is not philosophy; it is not 
fancy; it is not fable. The sure word of prophecy 
precedes it; the fact of Christianity follows it: the 
two stand in perfect accord and witness to it. If all 
this is false ; then all history is false : to-day is all 
we have. 

As soon as Jesus passed from the visible presence 
of His disciples and they were blessed with the 
outpouring of the Holy Ghost, they went everywhere 
preaching the Gospel ; and the Resurrection was the 
inspiration as well as the subject of every argument. 
On that very day of Pentecost, Peter arose to sub- 
lime heights as he made the charge, " Ye men of Acts2 122-24. 
Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man 



112 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

approved of God among you: Him ye have taken 
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain ; whom 
God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of 
death; because it was not possible that he should be 
holden of it." And then He took up the words of 
David, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither 

Psaim 16: 10. wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corrup- 
tion ;" and he applied them to Christ : " Therefore, 

Acts 2: 30-31. being a prophet, and knowing that God had 
sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his 
loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up 
Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before, 
spake of the resurrection of Christ." 

When Peter and John were called to account for 
the miracle wrought upon the lame man, Peter spake 
without reserve, " Be it known unto you all, and to 

Acts i: io. all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus 
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God 
raised from the dead, even by him doth this man 
stand here before you whole." And when they 
returned to the company of the disciples, the voice 
of thanksgiving went up to God, and a prayer for 
strength to speak His word with all boldness filled 
their lips. And upon this devout prayer followed 
the significant statement, " With great power gave 

Acts 4: 33. the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the 
Lord Jesus." 

The Apostles were again put into prison ; again 
were they brought before the Jewish council ; and 
once again the chief point of defence rested with 
the Resurrection : " The God of our fathers raised 

Acts 5: so, 32. up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree: 



THE RISEN CHRIST. 113 

and we are his witnesses of these things." And all 
this testimony was given in the face of stripes and 
imprisonment : yet they ceased not to teach and to 
preach it. 

A like testimony is furnished by St. Paul — him 
who once had breathed out threatenings and slaugh- 
ter against the followers of Christ. He stood up in 
the synagogue at Antioch, and beckoning with his 
hand, said, " Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, 
give audience." And then he traced in rapid outline 
the history of the chosen race, the climax of which 
came with these words, "And when they had Acts i3:i6-si. 
fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him 
down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre. 
But God raised him from the dead : and he was seen 
many days of them which came up with him from 
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto 
the people." He gave the same testimony in the 
synagogue at Thessalonica. Three Sabbath days, 
he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, " Open- 
ing and alleging that Christ must needs have suf- Acts 17 : 3. 
fered and risen again from the dead; and that this 
Jesus is Christ." 

If we turn to his letters, we find the same unequi- 
vocal testimony. In his Epistle to the Romans, 
where he argues the efficacy of divine grace, he says, 
" If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from Rom. 8: 11. 
the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from 
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." In 
his First Epistle to the Corinthians, he declares the 
Resurrection in most emphatic terms, and establishes 



114 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

it by an array of competent witnesses : " I delivered 
i cor. i5: 3-8. unto you, first of all, that which I also received, 
how that Christ died for our sins, according to the 
Scriptures ; and that he was buried, and that he rose 
again the third day, according to the Scriptures : 
and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve ; 
after that he was seen of above five hundred 
brethren at once : after that he was seen of James ; 
then of all the Apostles : and last of all he was seen 
of me." Then follows that argument which has 
proved the Church's great defence and the lasting 
comfort of God's people : " Now if Christ be 
preached that he rose from the dead, how say some 
l cor. 15: 12-18 among you that there is no resurrection of the 
dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, 
then is Christ not risen : and if Christ be not risen, 
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also 
vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of 
God; because we have testified of God that he raised 
up Christ, whom he raised not up if so be that the 
dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not 
Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith 
is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also 
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." And 
then, seeing the awful alternative, he realizes the 
utter despair of the Christian life, should the Resur- 
rection be robbed of its reality: " If in this life only 
icor. is: 19. we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most 
miserable." 

But the Resurrection is not an Apostolic fable : it 
is a great authenticated fact. And St. Paul, under 
the spell of it, breaks forth in tone most confident, 



THE RISEN CHRIST. 115 

" But now is Christ risen from the dead and be- icor.i5:2o. 

come the firstfruits of them that slept." Then, after 

discussing the subject in sublimest measure, he raises 

the exultant shout, " O death, where is thy sting: icor. 15:55. 

O grave, where is thy victory." Once again he takes 

up his pen in defence of this great central principle 

of the Christian's hope; and he exhorts the beloved 

Timothy, "Remember that Jesus Christ of the n Tim. 2: 8. 

seed of David was raised from the dead, according 

to my Gospel." This was his constant theme : it was 

the constant theme of all the Apostles. 

Is such an array of testimony to be swept aside by 
the dogmatic utterances of philosophy and science? 
Shall we suffer the theories and hypotheses and 
assumptions of atheists and materialists and agnos- 
tics — assumptions and hypotheses and theories which 
have no basis except in their own conceits : shall these 
things unsettle our faith, and strip us of all comfort, 
and drive us for ever to the gloom of the grave? 
Shall we not rather speak in triumphant tone, 
"Christ being: raised from the dead, dieth no Rom. 6: 9. 
more; death hath no more dominion over him." 
That is what Christ claimed : that is what the Apos- 
tles taught : that is what the Church confesses. And 
if we believe as St. Paul preached, we shall have St. 
Paul's assurance, " God hath both raised up the i Cor, 6 : h. 
Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power." 

The Resurrection of Christ : what a central place 
it holds in the redemptive act! It not only pro- 
claims the almightiness of Christ — His power over 
the grave, His triumph there: it seals and attests 



116 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

the success of the atonement. It tells us of Christ's 
divine power by which He triumphantly carried to 
the Cross the sins of the world and nailed them there 
— and left them nailed there. The personal triumph 
is indeed great — the majesty with which He brake 
the bars of death and came victorious from the 
grave. But the triumph for us, and all our race, 
is the transcendent one: it exhibits the crowning 
purpose of the incarnation — the glorious end for 
which Christ died and rose: it enables us to say, 
" He nailed our sins to the accursed tree." 



THE ASCENDED LORD. 117 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE ASCENDED LORD. 

THERE is a chain of events in the life of Christ 
which cannot be broken. If we start with 
the Annunciation, and move step by step; the 
cross, the grave, the crown, are the inevitable out- 
come. They follow in perfect order: they answer, 
at every point, the purpose of Christ's earth-exist- 
ence : they fit into human need and satisfy the nobler 
desires of the human heart : they are linked with an 
absoluteness that could emanate from none but the 
Infinite Mind : they move from everlasting to ever- 
lasting — deep calling unto deep : from the time-point 
of the Cross, they reach out into the two eternities — 
the one of eternal purpose, the other of unending 
effect. Viewed from either side, they face a light 
unto which no man may approach : for God is there. 
Trace any great life from the cradle to the grave 
— for these mark the visible bounds of man's exist- 
ence, they are the poles of human sight — and not a 
single one has its great successive facts so logically 
framed into a comprehensive whole, as has the life 
of Christ. Atheist and agnostic, philosopher and 
scientist, are spending their strength in pulling that 
blessed life to pieces. They stone Him, as did the 
Pharisees ; but He passes through their midst unhurt. 
They crucify Him and seal the sepulchre; but He 
comes forth triumphant. They enact, throughout 
the scenes of that dark day outside the city-gates, 



118 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

when men reviled the Holy One of God: and with 
what result ? The Psalmist foresaw it : " The kings 
Psaim 2: 2, 4. of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take 
counsel together against the Lord and against his 
Anointed : He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; 
the Lord shall have them in derision." Every man 
from Herod to Pilate has gone down to dust : their 
very names would have rotted had they not been 
linked with that devoted life. But Christ not only 
lives in the heavens : He lives and reigns in the 
hearts and lives of regenerated millions on earth. 
His enemies may put Him to death, they may 
eclipse His life for a time; but He shall rise, and 
ascend, and reign; and new conquests with new 
glories shall follow forever upon the Cross. The 
victories of God are everlasting and all-glorious 
victories. 

In the life of Christ, there is almightiness all along 
the line. His conception and birth have something 
out of the common course of nature: there is a 
divine majesty in His words and works of mercy, 
truth and grace: at His death, a shudder passed 
through this earth and waked the dead : His resur- 
rection was the act of the self-existent One. He 
that came forth from the Father and was come into 
the world; what remained, when He had finished 
the purpose of His earth-life, but to leave the world 
and go to the Father! 

The Ascension of Christ — His visible departure 
from the midst of His disciples, is as well attested 
as any fact in all the history of the human race. 



THE ASCENDED LORD. 119 

There could be no other outcome to such a life: it 
was the logical end of all antecedent events. It, 
therefore, must have the full attestation of Scripture. 
Let us now gather some of the evidence. 

By His repeated prophesies, Jesus prepared His 
disciples for those awful scenes on Calvary's Height : 
He would also prepare them for that transcendent 
scene on the Mount of Olives. He coupled the two 
events in those mysterious words, " A little while, Johni6: 16 
and ye shall see me : and again, a little while and ye 
shall not see me; because I go to the Father:" deli- 
cate hints of His crucifixion and ascension — enough 
for the time. The first suggestion, however, of the 
full scope of His life, He gave to Nicodemus in 
that interview by night : " No man hath ascended up 
to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, John 3: is. 
even the Son of Man which is in heaven." This 
was the starting-point of the great Ascension theme : 
it embodied the general fact in a general way, aside 
from all historic significance. 

There is more than a hint when Jesus discusses 
with His disciples the mysteries of His life : there is 
a gentle leading up to the great ascension fact. He 
had declared Himself to be the bread of life — " The 
bread which cometh down from heaven that a John 6 : so- 
man may eat thereof and not die." And when His 
disciples murmured at it, He said, " Doth this John 6:61,62. 
offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of 
Man ascend up where he was before?" The possi- 
bility, at least, of the Ascension is here implied. 

As the public ministry of Christ drew to a close, we 
find that He becomes more specific in His references 



120 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

to His return to His Father's side. When the 
Pharisees sent soldiers to take Him, Jesus said, 

John 7: 33. " Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go 
unto him that sent me." But they could not compre- 
hend it. In that long dispute with the Pharisees, 
He expresses the same thought, " I go my way ; and 

John 8: 21. ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins: 
whither I go ye cannot come." And when He 
would comfort His disciples at the prospect of His 
departure, He gives them the assurance, " In my 

John 14: 2. Father's house are many mansions: I go to pre- 
pare a place for you :" words which have been the 
comfort of God's people in every age. He speaks 
once more before He suffers; and His statement 
takes away all doubt and fills His followers with the 
sublimest hope, " I came forth from the Father and 

John 16; 28. am come into the world : again, I leave the world 
and go to the Father." And this includes the 
whole round of His eternal existence: all that re- 
mains is to give the promise its historic place. 

Meantime, the great theme was the Cross, and His 
death there; the grave, and His triumph over it. 
The disciples needed to be prepared for these two 
momentous events. But when that first " little 
while " was completed, Jesus spent the second " little 
while " in preparing them for the fulfilment of the 
John 16: io. promise, " I go to my Father and ye see me no 
more." And so, after the Resurrection, His tone 
becomes positive; His language is stript of all inde- 
finiteness : and He sends His disciples the plain, 
unmistakable message, " I ascend unto my Father, 



THE ASCENDED LORD. 121 

and your Father; and to my God, and your God." John 20: 17. 
Here is definite speech : it is, at once, a prophecy and 
a promise ; and its fulfilment is as well authenticated 
as any other fact to which history asks assent. 

There are three accounts of the Ascension : the one 
is given by St. Mark; the other two, by St. Luke. 
Each embodies a simple statement, with the force of 
conviction underlying it. After laying stress upon 
the fact of the Resurrection and mentioning the 
names of some of those who were witnesses that 
Jesus was once more alive, St. Mark states the 
commission and the promise of Christ : he then sums 
up the Ascension in one brief sentence : " After the 
Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up Mark 16: 19. 
into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." 
There is no apology; there is no explanation; there 
is no effort to persuade : it is given without comment 
as a simple statement of fact. 

The first account of St. Luke closes the Gospel 
which he wrote : the second is his introduction to 
the Acts of the Apostles. In the former, he says, 
"He led them out as far as Bethany; and he Luke 24: 50,51 
lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came 
to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from 
them and carried up into heaven." In the latter, he 
lays special stress upon the fact that Jesus had shown 
Himself alive after His Passion, by many infal- 
lible proofs, going in and out among them for the 
space of forty days. And then, appointing them to 
be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
" while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud Actsi.- 9. 
received him out of their sight." Henceforth, 



122 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

the Ascension was inseparable from the Apostolic 
doctrine. 

The disciples tarried in Jerusalem, waiting for 
the promised outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Peter 
stood up in their midst: there was a great glowing 
thought in his heart, and he must express it. He 
spoke of the transgression of Judas, and showed 
how he had forfeited his Apostolic place. He then 
proposed that they should fill the office, and laid 
down the law which should govern the choice: 

Acts i: 21,22. " Wherefore, of these men which have com- 
panied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus 
went in and out among us, beginning from the 
baptism of John, unto the same day that he was 
taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a 
witness with us of his Resurrection." And so, 
while he made the Resurrection the central point, 
the witness must reach both ways — back to the be- 
ginning of the ministry of Christ, His formal 
entrance into office; and on to its very close, when 
they stood and gazed as the cloud received Him out 
of their sight. 

And now came the day of Pentecost, with its 
wonderful gift of tongues. In his defence of him- 
self and his fellow-disciples against the charge that 
they were full of new wine, Peter makes the mar- 
vellous event center upon the Ascension of Christ, 

Acts 2: 88. " Therefore, being by the right hand of God 
exalted, and having received of the Father the 
promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, 
which ye now see and hear." Thus, throughout, 
the Ascension is linked with the great historic events 



THE ASCENDED LORD. 123 

in the life of Christ: and the proof of its reality 
was the great Pentecostal gift of tongues. 

The Apostle Paul everywhere speaks with equal 
assurance. He deals with the Ascension as a settled 
fact, an essential part in the series of saving events. 
And he writes specifically about it. Wherefore he 
saith, "When he ascended on high, he led cap- Psaim 68 : is. 
tivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." These are 
words of prophecy which he freely quotes. And 
that there might be no mistake as to the personality 
in their fulfilment, he applied them directly to Christ, 
"Now, that he ascended, what is it but that he also Eph. 4:8,9,10. 
descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 
He that descended is the same also that ascended up 
far above all heavens, that he might fill all things." 
This is in exact accord with the Gospel statement. 

There is nothing in all literature more sublime 
than St. Paul's summary of the round of Christ's 
redeeming work, when he makes the appeal, " Let Phii. 2: 5-11. 
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : 
who being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of 
no reputation, and took upon him the form of a 
servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and 
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled him- 
self, and became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a name which is above 
every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth; and that every tongue 



124 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father." 

And in his Epistle to Timothy, he gives the 
shortest possible outline, with the Ascension as the 
culminating point: " God was manifest in the flesh, 

i Tim. 3:i6. justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached 
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received 
up into glory." Such was the testimony of the 
man who stood, by when Stephen was stoned, and 
who, we may safely assume, heard his witness, " I 

Acts 7: 56. see the heavens opened and the Son of Man 
standing on the right hand of God :" the testimony 
of him around whom there shone a great light from 
heaven, and to whom there spake that voice, "I am 
Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest." 

The Epistle to the Hebrews takes up the same 
exalted theme : " God hath in these last days spoken 

Heb. i: i-3. unto us by his Son ; who being the brightness of 
his glory, and the express image of his person, and 
upholding all things by the word of his power, 
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down 
on the right hand of the majesty on high." Upon 
the fact of the Ascension is based the appeal, 

Heb. 4:14. " Seeing, then, that we have a great high priest 
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of 
God, let us hold fast our profession." And so, to 
emphasize the priestly office of Christ, the same 
Epistle makes the Ascension an essential part of the 
divine scheme : " Neither by the blood of goats and 

Heb. 9:12. calves, but by his own blood he entered in once 
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp- 



THE ASCENDED LORD. 125 

tion for us." And again, the direct statement is 
made, " This man, after he had offered one sacri- Heb. 10: 12. 
fice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of 
God." In short, the entire Epistle, presenting Christ 
as the High Priest of good things to come, bases 
everything upon the fact that He entered into the 
Holy of holies above. 

The Epistles of the New Testament are all written 
with reference to the ascended Christ. St. Peter 
says that God raised Him up from the dead, and 1 Peter 1 : 21. 
gave Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in 
God. He speaks definitely of "the resurrection 1 Peter 3:22. 
of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is on 
the right hand of God; angels and authorities and 
powers being subject unto him." St. John's 
Epistles, without the Ascension, would have neither 
spirit nor life — they are meaningless apart from it; 
while the Apocalypse gives us repeated glimpses of 
the One who was dead, but is alive for ever more — 
heavenly glimpses of Him who says, "I am set Rev. 8:21. 
down with my Father in his throne." 

Here, then, we have a plain series of historic 
statements which culminate in the Ascension of 
Christ — an event implied in the Old Testament 
prophecies and crowned by New Testament fulfil- 
ment. There can be no reasonable ground of 
dispute. The disciples were witnesses to it; the 
Apostles preached it; the Holy Church throughout 
all the world confesses it as a glorious fact. The 
tests of science cannot touch it : the sphere of 
philosophy falls short of it. And he who deliberately 



126 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

sets it aside or denies it — upon him shall rest the 
condemnation of the Apocalypse, "If any man shall 
Rev. 22: 19. take away from the words of the book of this 
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the 
Book of Life." 

The man who denies the miraculous advent of our 
Lord, cannot but deny His miraculous departure : 
to do otherwise were intellectual suicide. To him, 
there is no evidence but the evidence of the senses, 
the evidence of experience, the evidence of so-called 
rational thought. And so, he classes the Ascension 
with the physical impossibilities, and thus dismisses 
the case. He either discards the Scripture account 
of it or he rationalizes it out of existence. It is 
only where the Scripture principle has become a 
settled conviction of the heart that a man can say, 
" Thy Word is Truth." To the man who believes 
in Christ, the miracle of nature is as marvellous as 
the miracle of grace. To him, the spiritual com- 
prehension of spiritual things is as rational as the 
natural comprehension of natural things. The 
thought of the spiritual man, therefore, along 
spiritual lines is as rational as the thought of the 
natural man along natural lines. And in all the 
universe of thought, there is nothing more rational 
than the plan of redeeming love, of which the Ascen- 
sion is a truly rational part. 



THE ENTHRONED KING. 127 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ENTHRONED KING. 

THERE were moments in the life of Christ 
that were wondrously sublime — moments 
that transcend the supremest glories of mortal 
existence. Among the most sublime was that 
scene in the upper chamber, just before He crossed 
Kidron to enter Gethsemane — a scene in such strik- 
ing contrast to that enacted there. The terrible 
events were not hid from His eyes : the solemn insti- 
tution of the Holy Supper is proof of it. And now, 
with His disciples gathered around Him, He would 
fortify His heart for the awful issue. Lifting His 
eyes to heaven, He sends up that prayer which 
stands a challenge to human doubt as to the divinity 
of His nature and His eternal equality with Him 
who sits upon the throne; and He claims His place 
there. Mark the deep solemnity of the moment, and 
hear His confident tone, "Father, glorify thou Johni7:5. 
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had 
with thee before the world was." Let men debate 
as they please ; let them read out of these words their 
evident sense : the fact remains that the mind of Jesus 
was clear on this point — He was conscious that His 
was an eternal existence, equal with the Father in 
majesty and might ; and He confidently declared it. 
No one but God manifest in the flesh would dare to 
utter words like these: human lips are unclean in 
God's sight. 



128 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

The remarkable nature of these words becomes 
evident by contrast. The Patriarchs never had 
such visions with respect to themselves. The 
Prophets nowhere make themselves co-equal and 
co-eternal with the God who reigns above. The 
Apostles never represent themselves as other than 
the servants of Christ. In each instance, there was 
genuine humility of heart — an acknowledgment that 
God is supreme, before whom they were but dust 
and ashes. But Jesus, the meekest of all, the 
humblest of all, the lowliest of all: Jesus, who 
emphasized by precept the crowning virtue of the 
Christian life; who taught His Apostles the great 
lesson of humility by washing their feet; who 
warned them against seeking the higher places : 
Jesus lifts up His eyes toward heaven and claims 
His place on the eternal throne! There is only one 
way to reconcile His character and conduct; and 
that is, to confess with the beloved disciple, " This 
is the true God and eternal Life." 

The Church does not speculate on this point : it 
makes no guesses. It takes Christ at His word : it 
judges the unseen by the seen, the incomprehensible 
by the comprehensible, the unknown by the known. 
Rom. 1:20. Moreover, it finds the verification of Christ's 
words in the testimony of the Apostles. These men 
were as thoroughly convinced of Christ's session at 
the right hand of God, as they were of the great 
facts of His life to which they were direct wit- 
nesses. Nay, was not the outpouring of the Holy 
Ghost on the day of Pentecost its visible evidence? 



THE ENTHRONED KINO. 129 

Besides, they had the witness of the Spirit in their 
hearts. 

The manifestation of Jesus to His disciples in His 
person and office, follows the direct line of historic 
sequence. His session on the throne, therefore, is 
one of a series beginning with His divine appoint- 
ment as the Saviour of our race, and moving on till 
He comes in glory to Judgment. Each incident in 
the chain of events is brought to the front at the 
proper time and place : in each case, He could say to 
His disciples, " Now I tell you before it come, John 13 : 19. 
that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that 
I am he." And so, upon the fact of the Ascension 
follows the announcement of the place He occupies 
in the kingdom above. In short, so intimately are 
they associated, that they seem but parts of one 
great act. 

Here as elsewhere, a passing event was made the 
occasion of the announcement. The rich young 
ruler had come to Christ with the great question of 
eternal life: and the answer had sent him away 
sorrowful. It was this that led Jesus to say, " A 
rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." And this, in turn, led Peter to raise the 
question, " Behold, we have left all and followed 
thee: what shall we have therefore?" Then came 
the reply, " Ye which have followed me, in the re- Matt. 19 : 28. 
generation when the Son of Man shall sit in the 
throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Aside 
from all dispute relative to the Judgment — the time, 
its nature, the scope — the plain fact is here given: 



130 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Jesus sits on the throne of His glory. No scholastic 
issue can cloud it. 

The Parable of the last Judgment distinctly states 
the same fact — a fact which stands as a preface to 
that last solemn event, " When the Son of Man 
Matt.25:3),32 shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels 
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his 
glory : and before him shall be gathered all nations ; 
and he shall separate them one from another, as a 
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." Here, 
again, it is not only implied that Jesus has ascended 
into heaven ; but that He has taken His place on the 
heavenly throne and will exercise the supreme 
authority that pertains to His kingly session there. 

It was a solemn day in that blessed life, when 
Jesus stood before the High-priest and was com- 
pelled to declare, under oath, whether He was indeed 
the Christ, the Son of God. And then, to make His 
answer the more specific, to show that He was the 
Son of God in that sense in which the Jews under- 
stood it — " Equal with God," and thus remove all 
doubt as to His divine nature, He uttered those 
words at which the High-priest rent his clothes, 

Matt. 26:64. "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting 
on the right hand of power and coming in the 
clouds of heaven :" words at which the High-priest 
might well rend his clothes, if Jesus were not truly 
God manifest in the flesh. And in harmony with 
this claim of Christ is the Gospel statement, " After 

Mark 16: 19. the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received 
up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God " — 



THE ENTHRONED KING. 131 

the statement of a man who spake as he was moved 
by the Holy Ghost. 

The Acts of the Apostles record the same crown- 
ing event. And they record it with all the confi- 
dence that is manifest in matters of which they were 
eyewitnesses. On the day of Pentecost, Peter took 
the words of David and applied them directly to 
Christ : " Therefore, being a prophet and knowing 
that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of Acts 2: so. 
the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would 
raise up Christ to sit on his throne:" and he bases 
all his argument upon Christ's resurrection and 
ascension and exaltation to the right hand of God — 
the very outpouring of the Holy Ghost being claimed 
as the proof of His presence there. The testimony 
of Stephen as He prayed for those who stoned him, 
brings out the same essential Scriptural fact : " Be- 
hold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man Acts 7 56. 
standing on the right hand of God." And this is a 
testimony that may not lightly be put aside. 

The great Apostle to the Gentiles went forth 
with this fact as one of the leading inspirations of 
his life. In that ecstatic moment when the Chris- 
tian's hope was his exalted theme, he brushed aside 
every earthly obstacle, and with unbounded assurance 
— an assurance which marked the deep conviction of 
his heart, he swept the limits of saving grace, " It Rom. 8: 34. 
is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, 
who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us." When he treats of 
our election and adoption by grace, he dwells upon 



132 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

the working of God's mighty power, " which he 

E P h.i:20,2i wrought in Christ when he raised him from the 
dead and set him at his own right hand in the 
heavenly places; far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every name 
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that 
which is to come." And when he would have men set 
their affection on things above, he made this the 
center of their gaze, " If ye then be risen with Christ, 

coi. 3:i. seek those things which are above, where Christ 
sitteth on the right hand of God." Not only the 
Cross, but the Crown, was an essential part of St. 
Paul's doctrine. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews is full of the subject. 
There the priestly office of Christ is the one absorb- 
ing theme. Hence, in the introductory verses, the 
eternal Son holds the central place ; and the declara- 
tion with respect to Him is that when He had by 
Himself purged our sins, He " sat down on the 

Heb. 1 : s. right hand of the majesty on high." In summing 
up the things that pertained to the priesthood of 
Christ, the sacred writer places as the preface, " We 

Heb. 8: l. have such an High-priest, who is set on the right 
hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens." In 
comparing the priesthood of Christ with that of the 
ancient covenant, he brings out the same thought, 

Heb. io: 12. " This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for 
sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God." 
And once more, in his exhortation to faith and 
patience and godliness of life, he makes the appeal, 

Heb. 12: 1,2. " Let us run with patience the race that is set be- 
fore us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of 



THE ENTHRONED KING, 133 

our faith ; who for the joy that was set before him, 
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set 
down at the right hand of the throne of God." 
These are all positive statements; but no more posi- 
tive than Jesus Himself made. 

The theme of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost is 
taken up in his Epistles, which were probably written 
near the close of his life. Here he gives the doc- 
trinal setting of the resurrection of Christ, " Who iPet. 8: 22. 
is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, 
angels and authorities and powers being made sub- 
ject unto him." And St. John, in the Revelation 
that was committed unto him as unto a faithful 
witness, gives proof of his fidelity when he writes 
of Christ's promise to the Churches: " To him Rev. 8:21. 
that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my 
throne, even as I also overcame and am set down 
with my Father in his throne." That surely is 
specific — that message of the glorified Christ. 

And without this specific fact, the entire Book of 
Revelation lacks purpose and effect. It is only the 
acknowledgment that Jesus sits on the right hand 
of the majesty on high, that gives force to the words 
of the Apostle, as well as comfort to God's people in 
every age, "They shall hunger no more; neither Rev. 7: 16, 17. 
thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, 
nor any heat : for the Lamb which is in the midst of 
the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes." And when the Book closes 
with that beautiful description of the river of life, 
" clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of Rev. 22a 



134 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

God and of the Lamb:" what comfort is there in 
words like these, if this is but a pretty sentiment! 

If the words of Christ, therefore, carry any 
weight, His session at the right hand of God is a 
certified fact. It gave assurance to the Apostles 
through all the ministry of their lives. It gave 
new assurance to St. John on Patmos, when he was 
in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and heard behind 
him a great voice, as of a trumpet. It was the voice 
of Jesus, and His words were these : " I am Alpha 
Rev. i:ii, is. and Omega, the first and the last: I am he that 
liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for 
evermore." It was Christ's closing revelation 
directly from the heavenly throne. 

And what is man that he should deny this divine 
message? What is it that keeps men from bowing 
to Jesus as the One who is, and who was, and who is 
to come : what but intellectual pride ? What is poor 
human reason that it should aspire to lay hold on 
infinities? Man whose breath is in his nostrils — 
what is he that he should think himself capable of 
searching out the deep things of God? To study 
the stars, man resorts to the telescope : to study 
germ-life, he makes use of the microscope: to do a 
work which demands superhuman strength, he 
uses some mechanical device that his fertile brain 
has been able to invent. These are finite things : 
and for their understanding and use, man employs 
finite instrumentalities. And when it comes to 
infinite things, shall he not make use of infinite 
instrumentalities? The finite mind cannot lay hold 



THE ENTHRONED KING. 135 

of God's infinitudes : the means to comprehend them 
must come from the Infinite One. And so, the light 
of infinite truth shines into finite hearts : it is at once 
the spiritual microscope and telescope, to reveal 
spiritual things both small and great. 

Who by searching can find out God? " What icor. 2:11. 
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of 
man which is in him? Even so the things of God 
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." The 
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit 
of God — they are foolishness unto him: he cannot 
know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 
Who by searching can find out man? Man cannot 
find the principle of life — not even of his own life; 
but he does not deny its existence : he knows it exists, 
because it is manifest in the sphere of nature. But 
men will deny the vital principles of the religion of 
Christ, although these are everywhere manifest in the 
sphere of grace. 

The life of Christ, as witnessed by men who died 
rather than deny its essential nature : the life of 
Christ, as they preached it and lived it, made the 
resurrection an absolutely necessary outcome. Death 
could have no dominion over Him: it was not pos- 
sible for Him to be holden of it. And He who thus 
arose, could not do otherwise than ascend : He who 
ascended, found His own proper place on the eternal 
throne. The resurrection and ascension are estab- 
lished by competent witnesses: these historic facts 
constitute the basis of our belief in His session at 
the right hand of God. He prophesied it; He 
promised it; He proved it by the outpouring of the 



136 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Holy Ghost. His disciples preached it as they did 
those things which they saw with their own natural 
eyes — so certain were they of it. And the Church 
in all its centuries has confessed it as an essential 
part of God's redemptive plan: And so, to-day, we 
sing with the Church of ancient date, " Thou art the 
Tug King of glory, O Christ; Thou sittest at the 

TeDeum. dght hand Q f q^ in the glory Q f the F at h er ." 



THE GLORIOUS ADVENT. 137 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE GLORIOUS ADVENT. 

IT is not my purpose to enter into a discussion on 
the second coming of Christ — when it shall be, 
or what shall be its mode and effect ; but simply 
to point out the Scriptural assurance of the fact, and 
the one logical conclusion that must be drawn from 
it. There is much speculation along this line; but 
speculation brings no spiritual profit. To pry into 
the future is not always wise : it may even be hurtful. 
The impulsive disciple was gently rebuked for un- 
warranted meddling with coming events. He said, 
"Lord, and what shall this man do?" And the 
answer was, " If I will that he tarry till I come, John 21:21,22 
what is that to thee ? Follow thou me." The great 
thing, after all, is to follow Christ, not anticipate 
Him. For where we attempt to read our own 
thoughts into the future, we may get as far away 
from the truth as did the disciples, when they con- 
cluded that John should not die. 

A sad lesson is furnished us in the case of the 
Jews. They knew that the Messiah should come : it 
was so prophesied. They knew that He should sit 
upon the throne: it was so prophesied. And then 
they began to speculate. And the more they specu- 
lated, the farther they got from the truth and the 
less prepared were they to receive Christ when He 
actually came. Had they been satisfied with the 



138 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

promise and not meddled with the mode of fulfil- 
ment, they never would have heard those words of 
sorrowful doom, " Behold, your house is left unto 
you desolate." 

There is, indeed, much that we may safely infer 
both from prophecy and fulfilment relative to the 
glorious Advent of Christ; but we should be very 
careful as to our inferences, and we must draw a 
clear line between theory and fact. We are dealing 
with a great essential part of the redemptive scheme, 
and we dare not- speculate about it. In considering 
this subject, therefore, let us lay the foundation in 
the positive statements of Christ and build upon it 
the inspired declarations of the Apostles. Let us 
confine ourselves to Scripture: let us ship clear of 
unproductive philosophies. 

We cannot separate the great events of Christ's 
life: they are joined into a perfect whole. They 
are like a chain : take up a single link, and you take 
up the entire chain with it. And so, when Jesus 
foretold His death and resurrection, He leaped the 
chasm of time and assumed His glorious Advent: 

Luke 9: 26. " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my 
words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, 
when he shall come in his own glory, and in his 
Father's, and of the holy angels." " For the Son 

Matt. 16: 27. of Man shall come in the glory of his Father 
with his angels, and then he shall reward every man 
according to his works." The certainty of Christ's 
coming and its purpose are set forth as a settled 
fact. And yet, what He here claims as His special 



THE GLORIOUS ADVENT. 139 

prerogative, belongs to God and none else: no angel, 
no man surely, may lay claim to such a divine right. 
The awful events coupled with the final Advent, 
are the common theme of Scripture. The prophet 
Joel writes, " The sun shall be turned into dark- Joei2:si. 
ness, and the moon into blood, before the great and 
the terrible day of the Lord come." The questions of 
Amos make the truth the more emphatic, " Shall Amos 5: 20. 
not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light? 
even very dark, and no brightness in it?" Isaiah 
takes up the same theme, " The stars of heaven isa.i3: 10. 
and the constellations thereof shall not give their 
light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, 
and the moon shall not cause her light to shine." 
And Ezekiel likewise: " I will cover the heaven, Ezek.82:7. 
and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the 
sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her 

light.- 

And now Jesus takes up the same solemn theme : 
" Immediately after the tribulation of those days, Matt. 24: 29,30 
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not 
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, 
and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken : And 
then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth 
mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in 
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 
And this is prefaced by the statement, " As the light- 
ning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto Matt. 24: 27. 
the west so shall also the coming of the Son of Man 
be." And as to the purpose of His coming: " He 
shall send his angels, and shall gather together his 



140 TEE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Mark 13: 27. elect from the four winds, from the uttermost 
parts of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." 
There is no other name than the name of God that 
fits into these events : yet it is Jesus who thus comes 
with glory and great might. Wondrous facts in the 
history of the Anointed One! 

And these facts which Christ so clearly taught, 
became the theme of the Apostles. It could not be 
otherwise. For as they stood on the Mount of 
Olives, when their Lord was taken up and a cloud 
received Him out of their sight, God's messenger 
came with the promise, " This same Jesus which is 

Actsi: n. taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in 
like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." 
Link this with the promise of Christ, " I go to pre- 

john 14 : 2, s. pare a place for you : I will come again and receive 
you unto myself :" link these, and what could occupy 
their thoughts more than His promised return — a 
visible one, a personal one ; as His going into heaven 
had been personal and visible! 

It is charged against St. Paul, by the enemies of 
the New Testament, that he moulded Christian 
thought with respect to Christ. If this means that 
he preached his own notions about Christ, the charge 
has no foundation in fact. If it means, however, 
that he laid hold of the essential elements in Christ's 
life and so set them before the world that men could 
not get away from the truth he taught, the charge is 
true ; and St. Paul would have been false to the com- 
mission that Christ gave him had he taught other- 
wise. And there is no truth to which he returned 



THE GLORIOUS ADVENT. 141 

more frequently and with greater show of confidence, 
than the truth of Christ's return to take His people 
home 

In his letter to the Church at Corinth, he assumes 
the expectant attitude, as if the event were a thing 
of immediate prospect. And he holds them to the 
same hope when he writes, "Waiting for the icor. i:7,8. 
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also 
confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in 
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." And then he 
pleads for unity, so that united they may be ready 
for the coming of Christ. In the same letter, he 
gives a new significance to the Lord's Supper, when 
he adds to the words of institution, " For as often 
as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show 
the Lord's death till he come." icor. ii: 26. 

In his Epistle to the Philippians, he pleads for 
consistency of life. And in his contemplation 
of Christian excellence, he rises above passing 
temporalities — the things of flesh and sense. Tak- 
ing into view the completed outcome of human 
existence, he bases his exhortation on eternal 
realities, " For our conversation is in heaven, pmi 8:20,21. 
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that 
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, 
according to the working whereby he is able even to 
subdue all things unto himself." And when he 
would call men away from responding to the lower 
impulses of nature, he directs their thoughts above, 
where Christ sits on the right hand of God : and 
there he would keep our gaze, with the assurance, 



142 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

coi. 3: 4. " When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then 
shall ye also appear with him in glory." 

The central thought of the First Epistle to the 
Thessalonians, is the expected coming of Christ : all 
else circles about it. In his greeting, the Apostle 
shows how they were turned from idols to serve 
the living God : and with this end in view. " To wait 

iThess.irio. for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from 
the dead, even -Jesus, which delivered us from the 
wrath to come." He next takes a lofty view of the 
Apostolic office — not temporal gain but the glory of 
the outcome. And to emphasize it, he raises the 
question, " For what is our hope, or joy, or crown 
of rejoicing?" To which he makes reply, " Are 

iThess.2:i9. not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus 
Christ at his coming?" His prayer in behalf of 
the disciples at Thessalonica has a like thought: 

1 i3 hess,8:12 ' " The Lord make you to increase and abound in 
love one toward another, and toward all men, even 
as we do toward you; to the end that he may stab- 
lish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, 
even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ with all his saints." And when he writes to 
them with respect to the dead who sleep in Jesus, he 
tells them not to sorrow as those who have no hope. 
Then he draws that picture of the glorious Advent, 

i Thess. 4 : 16, « 'pke Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall 
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, 
to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be 



THE GLORIOUS ADVENT. 143 

with the Lord " — words which have no meaning, 
much less comfort, if Christ be not risen from the 
dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 
And finally, the Epistle closes with the benediction, 
" The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and iThess.5:£3. 
I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Thus from beginning to end, this 
letter dwells distinctly and without doubt upon the 
prophetic word, " The Son of Man cometh in the Marks: 88. 
glory of his Father with the holy angels." 

The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians has a like 
end in view ; though new considerations play an impor- 
tant part. The terrors of the event are there pictured, 
as well as the glories that attend it. The children of 
God suffer for the kingdom of Christ ; but there will 
be a recompense, — a recompense to him who brings 
persecution, as well as to him who endures it. And 
so the Apostle says, " It is a righteous thing with II ^ 1 e s . s,1: 
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble 
you ; and to you that are troubled, rest with us when 
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance 
on them that know not God, and that obey not the 
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be pun- 
ished with everlasting destruction from the presence 
of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when 
he shall come to be glorified in his saints." And 
then, realizing the profound effect of such an an- 
nouncement, the Apostle adds a word of warning, 
" We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our ^ r 2 Thess - 2: 
Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together 



144 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or 
be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by 
letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at 
hand." The same spirit marks the close of the 

iiThess.s:5. Epistle, "The Lord direct your hearts into the 

love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ." 

In his Epistle to Timothy, where he urges upon 

his young disciple the great principles of faith and 

practice, the same essential fact is kept in view : " I 

i Tim. 6: 13,14 give thee charge in the sight of God, who quick- 
eneth all things ; and before Jesus Christ, who before 
Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; that 
thou keep this commandment without spot, unre- 
bukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." And in his injunction to Titus as to doc- 
trine and life, he holds forth the blessed outcome, 

Titus 2: 13. " Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ." 

In like spirit and with like import, St. John the 
Divine writes ; " Behold, he cometh with clouds : 

Rev. i : 7. and every eye shall see him, and they also which 
pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail 
because of him." And the Book closes with these 
significant words, " He which testifieth these things 

Rev. 22: 20. saith, Surely, I come quickly!" And that there 
may be no mistake as to the person who thus 
testifies, the ready response springs from the beloved 

Rev. 22:20. disciple's heart, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." 
The theme of Christ's glorious Advent, therefore, 
has a very large place in the system of Apostolic 
doctrine. 



THE GLORIOUS ADVENT. 145 

In all the range of history, is there a single fact 
supported by such evidence and conviction and uni- 
formity of statement, as is the glorious coming of 
Christ? He held it forth to His disciples as the 
steadfast center of their hope. They held it up to 
their followers as the strong incentive to a godly life. 
And it can no more be severed from the history of 
our Lord, than can any incident from the manger to 
the cross. It belongs to an unbroken and unbreak- 
able system that includes the two eternities : it has a 
vital place in that life which reaches both ways into 
the endless years of God. The life of Christ, like 
the garment He wore, is woven without seam; and 
none but the hand of sacrilege would venture to 
sever it. The second Advent is as certain a coming 
event, as His first Advent is a settled fact. 

And who is He that is thus from everlasting to 
everlasting: He who holds the morning stars in His 
hand: He at whose presence the sun shall be dark- 
ened and the moon shall not give her light : Who is 
He? Is He but a man with a man's finite might? 
What an impossible creature such a man would be! 
But if He who claims this glorious Advent be the 
eternal God, stooping to our estate, then all these 
declarations of Scripture fit together into a con- 
sistent account of the consummation of God's mis- 
sion among men for their eternal redemption and 
final exaltation into heavenly places. 

If Jesus is not what the Scriptures declare, and 
what the Church uniformly confesses Him to be: T heNicene 
" God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very Creed - 
God;" then the Bible is a series of fables without 



146 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

point or effect, and the millions upon millions who 
have believed in it as the revelation of God in Christ, 
have been the most deluded creatures of the most 
stupendous fraud that was ever foisted upon the 
human race ! We are not quite ready for so sweep- 
ing a charge. 

We prefer to believe that all Scripture was given 
by inspiration of God, and that holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 
Then every statement that touches upon the life of 
Christ, from the starting-point of the redemptive 
scheme to its consummation when He shall come 
in glory to take His redeemed ones home: every 
such statement is not the incoherent mutterings of 
fallible men, but the infallible utterances of the 
everliving God. And so, we once more confess 
The with the Ancient Church, " We believe that Thou 

TeDeum. shah come> » 



THE ETERNAL JUDGE. 147 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE ETERNAL JUDGE. 

THE plan of salvation, as prophesied in the Old 
Testament and proclaimed in the New, 
assumes that Jesus is the Son of God; and 
that He is the Son of God in one specific sense, God 
the Son. These terms are interchangeable: they 
belong to Jesus Christ alone; they apply to no one 
else. " Emmanuel : God with us," was the an- 
nouncement of His birth : and every act of His life, 
every claim of His life, proves the truth of it. His 
was not the common course of human existence: 
there was something about Him different from any 
man before or since His lowly Advent. And this 
difference was not one of degree : it was an essential 
difference. His words were not human words: 
never man spake like this man. His acts were not 
human acts: it was never so seen in Israel; it was 
never so seen elsewhere on the face of the earth. 

If we recognize only the human element in Christ, 
we are mystified beyond measure : aye, we would 
pronounce the Gospel a cunningly devised fable. If 
we acknowledge the divine element of His nature, 
then His life is a marvellous unit, an inseparable 
unit : prophecy and fulfilment meet : the eternal ages 
unite in an unending circle of which the earth-seg- 
ment of the Christ-life is a glorious part. From 
throne to throne; and after that the judgment. 



148 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Time shall be no more : the temporal will be past ; 
the eternal estate shall have come : in the place where 
the tree falleth, there shall it be. It is a solemn fact 
for the human soul to contemplate: it should put 
deep seriousness into men's lives. 

There is no guesswork in the history of Christ. 
The Judgment is described with the same assurance 
as the commonest event of His life. It could not 
be otherwise when holy men of God spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost. In either case, 
infinite or finite, there is the reverent handling of 
facts : the least thing, therefore, becomes great and 
the greatest becomes least, because almightiness is 
associated with it. The meanest creature that 
crawls in the dust is great in proportion as we realize 
that God in His almightiness made it. An atom is 
as wonderful as an angel : God spake, and it was 
done: aside from His omnipotence, neither could 
exist. 

We mortals get the relative view, not the essential 
one. We measure things according to size, com- 
plexity, and the like. The Judgment is tremendous 
in our eyes, because we are tremendously related to 
it. And yet, it is but one of a multitude of almighty 
acts — the culminating one. Because it deals with 
the infinite outcome, it has a sublimity that tran- 
scends, to mortal gaze, all acts of mere temporal 
interest. And since it affects our eternal estate, we 
stand in awe of it. 

The prophets wrote of " the great and the terrible 
joei 2: si. day of the Lord." In that Old Testament Book 



THE ETERNAL JUDGE. 149 

which looks so clearly into the last times, the state- 
ment is made, "The judgment was set, and the Dan. 7: 10. 
books were opened." In short, in a multitude of in- 
stances, there is direct or indirect reference to the last 
great day, the Day of Judgment. And so, when Jesus 
makes mention of it, He moves within prophetic 
lines. 

He but emphasizes the certainty of the event when 
He speaks those words of doom, " And thou, 
Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be Matt.ii: 23,21 
brought down to hell : It shall be more tolerable for 
the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for 
thee." And when He would teach men that the 
heart measures the life, that it is the source whence 
flows the good or bad in word and deed, He pro- 
nounces those words of solemn import, " Every Matt. 12:86. 
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give ac- 
count thereof in the day of judgment." The cer- 
tainty of that day, in His divine thought, was as 
fixed as any actualized fact : there could be no doubt 
with respect to it. 

He gives us a nearer view of this subject when 
He upbraids the people for their unbelief. He had 
just uttered those seeming anomolies which are quite 
incomprehensible aside from the divinity of His 
nature: "He that believeth on me, believeth not John J2: 44, 45 
on me, but on him that sent me : He that seeth me, 
seeth him that sent me." And then He uttered 
those words that are altogether divine, " I am come 
a light into the world, that whosoever believeth John 12: 46-48 
on me should not abide in darkness. And if any 
man hear my words and believe not, I judge him 



150 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save 
the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth 
not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the 
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him 
in the last day." 

The first Advent was an advent of mercy: the 
last Advent will be an Advent of Judgment. And 
to him who rejects Christ's words of mercy, there 
remaineth nothing but words of judgment. It is 
a terrible thought, to think that the way we treat 
Christ's words here, will settle the way He will 
deal with us there: a terrible thought that now we 
are sealing our judgment. 

But Jesus has not left us without definite testi- 
mony on this point. Early in His ministry, He 
gave the warning word : " Not every one that saith 

Matt. 7: 21. unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- 
dom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven." And then He an- 
nounces the awful fact, " Many will say to me in 

Matt. 7: 22, 23 that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in 
thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? 
and in thy name done many wonderful works? 
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew 
you; depart from me ye that work iniquity." 
These are prophetic words : they mark a solemn 
scene before Christ's judgment seat. 

The Jews sought to kill Jesus because He said 
that God was His Father, thus making Himself 
equal with God. In His defence, He maintains His 
position and shows what it further involves : " As 



THE ETERNAL JUDGE. 151 

the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth John 5: 21. 
them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." 
Here is an equality, not only in omnipotence, but in 
the honor that results from it. And then as an 
additional ground on which to base His claim, He 
adds, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath John 5: 22,23 
committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men 
should honor the Son even as they honor the 
Father." And to remove all doubt; to show His 
self-existence in the unity of the two natures, and 
the part that is committed to Him in view of it, He 
makes the additional statement, " As the Father John 5: 26, 27 
hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to 
have life in himself: and hath given him authority 
to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of 
Man." Son of God and Son of Man on the 
eternal throne as Judge ! 

Jesus would put His disciples in the expectant 
attitude: "Watch, for ye know not what hour Matt. 24 : 42. 
your Lord doth come :" " Take heed to yourselves ; 
lest that day come upon you unawares:" " Watch Luke2i:34,86 
and pray, that ye may be accounted worthy to 
escape all these things that shall come to pass, and 
to stand before the Son of Man." The whole teach- 
ing of Christ had in view the preparation of His 
disciples for the day of Judgment : " For the Son of 
Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with Matt. 16:27. 
his angels; and then he shall reward every man ac- 
cording to his works." Thus he openly claims that 
which belongs distinctively to God's office. 

The Apostles — men who companied with Him all 



152 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

the time, from the baptism of John till the day He 
was taken up: these Apostles bear witness that 
Christ declared Himself to be the eternal Judge. 
And Peter claims that Christ commissioned them 
to make special proclamation of it : " He corn- 
Acts io: 42. manded us to preach unto the people and to 
testify that it is he which was ordained of God to 
be the Judge of quick and dead." This was the 
culminating point : the point on which they set their 
gaze; the point of hope, of assurance, of comfort, 
of peace. This was the basis of that peace which 
they preached by Jesus Christ. And to have the 
loving Saviour as our final Judge, is the crowning 
comfort of the Christian life. 

The Apostle Paul, whom the exalted Christ taught 
the way of life, never lost sight of the Judgment. 
He plainly says, " As many as have sinned in the 
Rom. 2: 12, 16 law, shall be judged by the law; in the day when 
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." 
When he calls men away from uncharitable judg- 
ment, he lifts into view, as the great constraining 
influence, the last Judgment : " We shall all stand 
Rom. 14: io. before the judgment-seat of Christ." In his 
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, he is equally 
plain and specific, " We must all appear before the 
ncor. 5: io. judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may 
receive the things done in his body, according 
to that he hath done, whether it be good or 
bad." When he enjoins Timothy to preach the 
Word, he draws him up to the very bar of God: 
iiTim. 4:i. "I charge thee, therefore, before God and the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and 



THE ETERNAL JUDGE. 153 

the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." And 
then, urging upon him to make full proof of his 
ministry, he assumes the triumphant tone, as he 
realizes that the time of his departure is at hand: 
" I have fought a good fight; I have finished my n Tim. 4: 7, 8 
course; I have kept the faith: henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them also 
that love his appearing." And so clear was his 
vision of it, and so absolutely certain in his eyes, 
that he sums his conviction in those words which 
Christ Himself had used to designate it, "For iThess.5:2. 
yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord 
so cometh as a thief in the night." And so here, 
as elsewhere, St. Paul but repeats what Christ 
before had taught. He was a faithful Apostle; 
while those who claim the Christian name, but deny 
the Christian faith, are Apostates : they are worse — 
they are false to every fundamental principle of 
faith and life. 

The beloved disciple had the same profound con- 
viction ; and on proper occasion he expressed it. In 
that sweet fatherly tone which marks his Epistles, he 
says, "And now, little children, abide in him: uohn2:28. 
that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, 
and not be ashamed before him at his coming." 
" It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we 1 John 3 : 2. 
know that when he shall appear, we shall be like 
him." "Herein is our love made perfect, that uonn 4 : 17. 
we may have boldness in the day of judgment." 



154 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

The love, the confidence, the trust: these shine out 
in the gentle words that hint of judgment to come, 
with Christ in the judgment-seat. No one but he 
who leaned on Jesus' breast could have written 
words such as these. 

The closing Book of the New Testament is in 
perfect accord with all that Christ had taught in 
His earthly life-time, and all that the Apostles had 
declared in His name. Jesus now speaks from 
the heavenly throne — the Lamb in the midst of it. 
Shall we not, as those who serve Him day and 
night, fall prostrate at His feet! He addresses the 
Seven Churches. To one of them He gives the 
promise, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 

Rev. 2:10. give thee a crown of life." To another He 
utters the solemn warning, " Remember, therefore, 

Rev. 3: 3. how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast 
and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I 
will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not 
know what hour I will come upon thee." In that 
great and notable day of the Lord, the heavens 
shall depart, and every mountain and island shall 
be moved out of their place : and the mighty men 
of the earth, the bond and free, shall cry to the 
mountains and rocks, " Fall on us and hide us 

Rev.6.-i6, 17. from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, 
and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great 
day of his wrath is come." And among His last 
messages is this remarkable one, " Behold, I come 

Rev.22.-i2, 13, quickly ; and my reward is with me, to give 

16, every man according as his work shall be." " I 

am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, 



THE ETERNAL JUDGE. 155 

the first and the last." " I Jesus have sent mine 
angel to testify unto you these things in the 
Churches : I am the root and the offspring of David, 
the bright and morning star." 

The Apocalypse is, indeed, full of mysteries : it 
may require the last times to solve many of them — 
to come to a clear comprehension of all that they 
involve. But here the revelation is unmistakable. 
Jesus the Root of David, the God who created 
David: Jesus the Branch of David, the Man who 
descended from David — David's Lord and David's 
Son ! Jesus, God and Man : God, begotten of the 
Father from eternity; and Man, born of the Virgin 
Mary! Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the Begin- 
ning and the End, the First and the Last : from 
everlasting to everlasting, God! Jesus the Judge! 

Judgment belongs only to God : besides Him there 
is none else. When Abraham interceded for 
Sodom, he said, " Shall not the judge of all the Gen. 18:25. 
earth do right!" When Moses sang his song of 
praise, in which he recorded God's mercy and ven- 
geance, this was the central theme, " The Lord Deut.82:86. 
shall judge his people." When Hannah's heart 
rejoiced in the Lord, these were the words that 
swelled her song of praise: " The adversaries of isam. 2: 10. 
the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven 
shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge 
the ends of the earth." David's song was ever the 
same: "The Lord reigneth: he cometh to judge ICh 3?, n ^ 6 
the earth." And when the harvest of the world 
is come, the angel shall cry with a loud voice, " Fear 



156 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Rev. 14: 7. God and give glory to him; for the hour of his 
judgment is come." And so, throughout, we have 
the uniform testimony of Scripture, " God is the 
Judge." 

God is Judge: Jesus is Judge. So the Scrip- 
tures tell us; and so we believe. And yet there are 
not two Judges : there is but one Judge. Is there 
conflict here? None in the least: none, if we be- 
lieve the Word of God, as Prophets and Apostles 
declare it: none if we acknowledge the truth of the 
Gospel statement, " In the beginning was the Word, 

John 1:1-14. and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among us, full of grace and truth." And receiv- 
ing this as God's message, we once more confess 

The with the Ancient Church, " We believe that Thou 

Te Deum. shalt come tQ be our J udge .» 



THE SON OF MAN 157 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE SON OF MAN. 

THE name which Jesus gives Himself is a 
strange, perplexing name; a name so simple, 
yet so comprehensive ; a name which has been 
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence : The Son 
of Man. It was the name of His choice : He loved 
it above all other names. It is practically a new 
name: no one else ever assumed it: no one else 
ever called Him by it. In its use, therefore, He 
stands distinctly alone. 

It is true, the Lord addresses the prophets by the 
name, " Son of man ;" but it was expressive of the 
human side of the prophet sphere. And there is one 
specific case in the Old Testament where this 
strangely significant name is used, and only one. In 
the night visions, Daniel beheld one like the Son of 
Man coming with the clouds of heaven. And Dan. 7 .-is, u 
there was given him dominion, and glory, and a 
kingdom: His dominion an everlasting dominion; 
His kingdom one that should not be destroyed. 
This is prophetic of Christ : it could refer to no 
one else. And in the New Testament there is a 
single reference, and only one. It, too, was a 
vision. It came to Stephen as he looked stead- 
fastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and 
Jesus standing there. And he said, "Behold, Acts 7: 56. 
I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man 



158 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

standing on the right hand of God." And he 
prayed, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." This 
Son of Man, therefore, was none other than Christ. 
These are the only two instances in all Scripture 
where any one, other than Jesus, makes use of 
this name. And in both these instances, the one 
of prophecy, the other of fulfilment, the name is 
applied to Him. 

It was the people who raised the question, " Who 
John 12: 34. is this Son of Man?" They raised it because 
Jesus had applied it to Himself as the Christ. And 
that is the question men have been asking down 
through the ages. If we would get the right 
answer, we must go to Christ for it. And in taking 
up His answers, we may divide them into three 
classes: those which show His wants because of 
His human nature; those which set forth His might 
in view of His divine nature; and those which 
show the majesty of the human-divine as He sits 
in His heavenly throne. 

The life of Christ has its representative human 
side — a side which makes Him one with us, our 
kinsman according to the flesh. There is more 
than a picture of the deep humiliation of His life: 
there is a summing up of the entire human estate 
when He says, " The foxes have holes, and the 
Matt. 8: 20. birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man 
hath not where to lay his head." He does not com- 
pare Himself with those who dwell in kings' houses ; 
not even with those who live in huts : the point of 
contrast does not lie there. " Foxes have holes " 



THE SON OF MAN. 159 

— the clefts in the rocks furnish them a safe retreat : 
" The birds of the air have roosting-places " — any 
branch will serve them as a perch for the night. 
Every earth-creature has a natural earth-place of 
rest; "but the Son of Man" the great representa- 
tive of the human race, " hath not where to lay his 
head." That figures exactly the human estate : man 
has no natural earth-home; he must build his own 
time-abode. We are strangers and pilgrims as 
were all our fathers : here we have no continuing 
city, but we seek one to come. And He who dwells 
in that house not made with hands, not only assumed 
our nature, but He also accepted our estate: the 
Son of Man, with no earth-home, no time-abode. 
He not only assumed our homeless estate, but He 
lived without a home. What self-abandonment! 

Not only in our universal homeless earth-estate 
did He become like us, but He became a partaker in 
all the conditions of life. It was He who said, 
" The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and 
they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine Matt. 11: 19. 
bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." He 
thus shared the common wants of life; nor did He 
escape the common evil tongue. Everywhere, we 
find the same human estate: "The Son of Man Matt.i7:22,23 
shall be betrayed into the hands of men; and they 
shall kill him:" "The Son of Man must suffer Mark 9 .-12. 
many things and be set at naught:" "The Son Mark 10:45. 
of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister." These all mark common human con- 
ditions Aside from all saving significance, they 



160 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

represent our common human lot : to eat and drink, 
to labor and suffer and die. And these instances, 
and others like these, prove that Jesus Christ was 
in all such points like ourselves, having all the 
sinless wants of our nature. 

In the entire round, therefore, of His humiliation, 
He stands before us pre-eminently the Son of Man. 
With that mysterious name and nature, He entered 
into human joys ; with it, He passed through human 
sorrows. Hunger and thirst were His, weariness 
and loneliness of life. The hatred of men weighed 
upon His heart; their love and trust were a delight 
before His eyes. Up in the mountain He prayed; 
out in the desert He fasted; down by the seaside 
He toiled ; and as He stood by the grave of Lazarus 
He wept. Where in all the world has there come 
a personality so in touch with the heart and life 
of humanity as this Son of Man? His very name 
hallows every circumstance of life — an incentive 
to toil, a comfort in sorrow, a restraint amid 
pleasure: all sanctified by this transcendental earth- 
name, " The Son of Man." 

And so, Jesus is one of us : His name, the Son 
of Man, designates it. Yet if we study His life — 
the mere human side of it, we shall find that He is 
separate from us : He must be classed alone. The 
very fact that the Word of God and the Church of 
God emphasize the humanity of Christ, is a strong 
hint, if not a positive proof, that there is another 
side to His nature. In all the literature of the 
ages, no man ever tried to establish his humanity 



THE SON OF MAN 161 

or even, aside from special instances, to emphasize 
it. Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, historians 
like Heroditus and Livy, poets like Homer and 
Horace, orators like Demosthenes and Cicero, gen- 
erals like Alexander and Caesar: they never em- 
ployed terms by which to lay stress upon the fact 
that they were men of like passions with ourselves. 
But in the case of Jesus it is different : He kept His 
humanity distinctly in view; at every possible point 
He urged it. The divine side of His life shone out 
so strongly that it was necessary, at every turn, to 
hold up the human side, and to designate it by a 
distinctive human name when the divine attributes 
were manifest. 

But as soon as we touch the divine side of His 
life, though the human is present, all idea of His 
humiliation and all expression relative to it, pass 
out of sight. He stands before us transfigured — 
" The Son of Man :" He stands in heavenly majesty 
and might. When He cured the man sick of the 
palsy, striking at the very source of sickness, He 
said, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." And when 
the scribes charged Him with blasphemy, His answer 
was, "But that ye may know that the Son of Matt. 9: 6. 
Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then 
saith he to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy 
bed and go unto thine house." The Pharisees up- 
braided Him for allowing His disciples to pluck the 
ears of corn on the Sabbath day. His answer was, 
" The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Matt.i2: 8. 
Jesus was guest with Zacchaeus. And He answered 
the murmurings of the people, " The Son of Man Lukei9: 10. 



162 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

is come to seek and to save that which was lost." 
And elsewhere He makes clear the same fact by the 
prophetic figure, " And as Moses lifted up the 
john3: 14,15. serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son 
of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish but have eternal life." 

Who is this Son of Man : this man who has power 
on earth to forgive sins? this man who is Lord of 
the Sabbath? this man who has power to save? 
These are almighty acts: but Jesus, as the Son of 
Man, claims the right and the power to perform 
them. In Him, so complete was the personal union 
of the human and the divine, so perfect the oneness, 
that whatever is predicated of His humanity is also 
predicated of His divinity — not apart from His 
humanity, but in personal union with it: and what- 
ever is predicated of His divinity is also predicated 
of His humanity — not apart from His divinity, but 
in personal union with it. The entire personality 
participates: the whole being, the God-man, every- 
where takes part alike in human and divine acts. 

There is another point from which to view this 
wonderful personality, the Son of Man. It is 
already implied in the words of Daniel, when he 
foretold the coming of His kingdom which shall 
bring down every opposing power, as well as His 
coming to judge : the one like the Son of Man. 
And now when Jesus comes, the fulfilment of 
prophecy, and reveals Himself in the new relation, 
He clings to the old name: He stills calls Himself 
the Son of Man. The human nature, therefore, 



THE SON OF MAN 163 

abides : it did not pass away in time ; it will not pass 
away with time. The union of the two natures is 
an everlasting union: not fused into one; not 
attached by mere physical ties; distinct as body and 
soul are distinct; yet inseparably united, so that 
they constitute one person with two natures. And 
so, in the oneness and almightiness of this one per- 
sonal existence, the Son of Man shall come in Matt. 25: 31. 
His glory ; the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne 
of His glory: the Son of Man shall send His Matt. 13 : 14. 
angels : authority hath been given Him to execute Johns: 27. 
judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 

Who is this Son of Man? He sits on God's 
throne; He executes God's judgment; He takes to 
Himself God's kingdom and power and glory : and 
yet the Son of Man! The Son of Man who hun- 
gered and thirsted, who suffered and died — so 
perfect was His humanity here on earth : the Son of 
Man who forgave sins, who made Himself Lord 
of the Sabbath, who exercised God's saving power 
— so perfect was His divinity here on earth: this 
Son of Man, in the perfection of His two natures, 
takes His place on the heavenly throne; and there, 
the same Son of Man as He was here, He claims 
almighty attributes, fills almighty offices, and per- 
forms almighty acts. And what have we? The 
weakness of human nature and the majesty of the 
divine, manifested in His earthly life: the trans- 
figuration of the human nature — its glorification 
with the divine, in which, by personal union, it 
shares in all its wisdom and glory and might ! The 
ever-existent manhood in the infinite activities of 



164 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

the Godhead — this is what Christ claims when, 
under relations that are absolutely divine, He calls 
Himself the Son of Man. And if anyone, in his 
inability to grasp a relation so far above human 
thought, should ask, " How can these things be," 
let this answer suffice, " With God, nothing is im- 
possible." 

And yet we can, in a measure, illustrate the 
infinite by the finite: the possibilities, at least, may 
be brought within the range of reasoning accept- 
ance. Alloys, however, debase the precious metal, 
though they may enhance its value for current use. 
And comparisons between the natural and the 
spiritual tend to drag down the lofty theme; yet 
they sometimes serve as useful adjuncts in bringing 
to the comprehension great spiritual facts. But 
let us not forget Christ's estimate of faith as over 
against sight : " Thomas, because thou hast seen 
John 20: 29. me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that 
have not seen, and yet have believed." 

A few illustrations will serve our purpose : they 
are taken from everyday events. A man can ride 
sixty miles an hour; but he cannot walk it: the 
ennabling power lies in the locomotive. And if the 
train could travel a thousand miles an hour, he 
could do the same. In short, the train limit of 
speed is his speed limit. A man cannot rise to 
mid-air by his unaided powers; but if he enters a 
balloon, he can rise as far as it can rise, and as fast. 
A man cannot, unaided, move over the surface of 
the water ; but he can board a ship and sail the seas. 



THE SON OF MAN 165 

In other words, a man does human impossibilities 
by his connection with physical appliances. Their 
speed becomes his speed, their strength his strength, 
their acts his acts. And, let it be noted, his con- 
nection with these mechanical appliances is a purely 
physical one : it is one of outward relation ; it is not 
one of life. 

If a man, therefore, could link himself with an 
object of infinite speed, he could be everywhere 
present. If he could link himself with an object of 
infinite might, he could perform almighty acts. 
And so on, with all the round of infinitudes. In 
Jesus Christ, God and man are brought together: 
the relation is not a physical one; it is not a mere 
organic one: it is personal. The Son of Man in 
personal union with the Son of God, by that very 
fact is endowed with all the attributes of God. Is 
God omnipotent? The Son of Man is omnipotent. 
Is God omniscient ? The Son of Man is omniscient. 
Is God omnipresent? The Son of Man is omni- 
present. If our physical relation with some 
mechanical device gives us all the power and speed 
of that device, shall not the Son of Man, in the per- 
sonal union of God and man, be able to assume 
every province and exercise every power of God? 
From what we see every day in physical life, is it not 
a most reasonable inference that this personal union 
must result in every attribute of God being manifest 
in the life of Christ? Must not the very claim of 
Jesus, " I and my Father are one," necessitate it ! 

It is a remarkable fact that Jesus nowhere argues 



166 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

the case : He simply affirms and acts. He has power 
to forgive sins, because God and man are united in 
His life. He is Lord of the Sabbath, because in 
Him God and Man are one. And the natures of 
the God-man here on earth, the human and divine, 
are the natures of the God-man on the heavenly 
throne. The Son of Man, in the unity of His two 
natures, ascended into heaven: the Son of Man, in 
the unity of His two natures, sits on the right hand 
of God: the Son of Man, in the unity of His two 
natures, shall come in the clouds of heaven with 
power and great glory: the Son of Man, in the 
unity of His two natures, shall be our Judge. 

Two scenes rise into view — an earthly and a 
heavenly one: The Son of Man, God and Man, 
lifted up on Calvary's Cross; the Son of Man, God 
and Man, seated on the throne to execute judgment. 
And in these two scenes we have an eternal interest : 
we must be saved by the Son of Man here, if we 
shall be able to stand before the Son of Man in 
judgment there. 



THE SON OF GOD. 167 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE SON OF GOD. 

THOSE who discredit the divinity of Christ, are 
driven to great straits. They pervert Scrip- 
ture; they deny evident fact; and when they 
reach the last ditch, they entrench themselves behind 
the weak negative, " Nowhere in the New Testa- 
ment is it declared that Christ is God." If that 
were true, it would have no significance. An attri- 
bute proclaims what is back of it: it needs no label 
to declare it. The attributes of God are manifest 
in Christ : why, then, should He declare what is 
evident? A black man does not emphasize the fact 
that there is black blood in his veins: the surface 
shows it. And the surface of Christ's life declares 
His divinity in terms plainer than speech could 
make it. Self-revelation is the peculiar birth- 
right of all realities, whether in nature or grace. 

If men do not want to believe in the Bible, they 
should declare themselves — not pretend to believe, 
on the surface, but deny in the heart. To twist its 
sense, to turn history into fable and idealize truth 
out of existence, to narrow or broaden the Word 
to fit their theories: this is neither scholarly nor 
honest. And this is the enemy that sows the tares* 
— something in the green that looks like wheat; 
but which, in the end, ripens into a harvest of 
hypocrisies and lies. 



168 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

It is the favorite argument of the enemies of 
Christ, that Jesus is the Son of God in a broad 
human sense. We are the sons of God, they say, 
as well as was Jesus Christ — sons such as was He. 
They are willing to admit that Jesus was of a more 
perfect grade; but the relationship, they claim, is 
the same. And then they soar aloft in graceful 
flights of praise that humanity may reach so perfect 
a degree — a sample of the possibilities of our own 
ennobled selves! All of which would be very 
beautiful if it were true; but it is not true. Aye, it 
actually falls short of truth : for the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. 
But this is a different thing from the state of 
nature ; for the heart of man is deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked. And its deceitful- 
ness is nowhere more in evidence than in the human 
perversions of Holy Scripture — the fancies of the 
religious fadist. 

The Scriptures call Jesus the Son of Man : they 
mean that He was true and perfect man. They call 
Him the Son of God: they mean that He was true 
and perfect God. The very logic of language 
compels the inference. The use of the former 
name implies the active presence of the human 
nature : the use of the latter name implies the active 
presence of the divine nature. In every instance, 
without exception, God is there — the sonship being 
expressive of the personal relation in the one divine 
essence. The name, The Son of God, takes us out 
of the sphere of human life: it brings us into the 



THE SON OF GOD. 169 

realm of the divine. The Word of God, which is 
the rule of faith, abundantly establishes the truth 
of this statement. 

The angel said to Mary, " The Holy Ghost Luke 1 : ss. 
shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 
shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy 
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
Son of God." According to this message, Jesus 
was the Son of God because He was conceived by 
the Holy Ghost: that separates Him from every 
other mortal life. Such an announcement was never 
made in any other case. If we are the sons of God, 
in the sense in which Jesus was the Son of God, then 
this message has no meaning. But if this Son of 
God is God the Son, then the angel who stands in 
the presence of God would be the proper messenger 
to announce it. 

The witness of John the Baptist is equally con- 
firmative. He that sent him to baptize with water, 
the same said unto him, " Upon whom thou shalt John i: 38, 84. 
see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the 
same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." 
And then he adds, " I saw and bare record that this 
is the Son of God." If every man is a son of God 
in a higher or lower sense according to the integrity 
of his life, and Jesus is the highest simply because 
He is the purest and the best, these words of John 
have neither spiritual, moral, nor logical force : his 
voice is an empty voice. We believe otherwise. 
We believe as John meant it, " This is the Son of 
God " — specific, separate, the only One. 



170 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

A very special kind of evidence is furnished by 
the evil spirits — the demons that manifest them- 
selves through the wicked and the weak of our 
poor mortal race. There is the case of that man in 
the synagogue who was possessed of an unclean 
spirit and cried out, " I know thee who thou art, 

Mark 1:24. the Holy One of God." There are general cases 
where the unclean spirits, when they saw Jesus, fell 
down before Him and cried, " Thou art the Son of 

Mark 3: 11,12 God." And Jesus charged them that they 
should not make Him known. There was the case 
of the Gadarenes, who cried out, " What have we 

Matt. 8: 29. to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art 
thou come hither to torment us before the time?" 
If this Son of God were but a man like ourselves, 
why should Jesus charge the evil spirits not to make 
Him known? Did He conspire with them to de- 
ceive the people? The Jews charged Him with 
being in league with the evil spirits; but the very 
fact that He cast them out shows that the charge 
was false. If this Son of God were but a man 
like ourselves, why did the evil spirits gnash on 
Him for coming to torment them before their 
time? They knew the just judgment of God and 
the appointed time — the bottomless pit at the end of 
the age. They saw the divine nature of Christ — 
not a son of God as we are, but God the Son: and 
they trembled at His Advent. 

The Jews sought to kill Jesus because He said 

John 5 is. that God was His Father, thus making Himself 
equal with God. When we call Him our Father, we 
do not make ourselves equal with God : where, then, 



THE SON OF GOD. 171 

is the difference? These Jews knew what He 
meant when He claimed to be the Son of God : He 
meant that He was equal with God — God in fact. 
The Pharisees never claimed to be sons of God as 
He claimed it : it remained for modern Pharisees to 
claim it ! They dethrone Christ : they enthrone 
themselves. But every orthodox Christian draws 
a distinct line: he believes that Jesus was the Son 
of God in the sense that He was God the Son; and 
he knows that his own sonship is a spiritual sonship 
through Christ. " Thou art that Christ, the Son John 6: 69. 
of the living God :" it was Peter who said it, and his 
Master did not rebuke him. "Of a truth, thou Matt. H: 83. 
art the Son of God :" so said the disciples ; and they 
worshipped Him. And when Jesus met the man 
whom the Pharisees had cast out of the synagogue, 
He asked, " Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" 
He answered and said, " Who is he, Lord, that I John 9 .-35-37. 
might believe on Him?" Jesus said unto him, 
" Thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh 
with thee." If Jesus was the Son of God in a 
human sense, these incidents have no foundation in 
fact: they are but old wives' fables. Such are the 
extremes to which doubt drives the worldly wise. 

In that dispute with the Jews in which He said, 
" I and my Father are one;" they took up stones John io: so-36 
a second time to stone Him, " Because," said they, 
" that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." 
And Jesus reasoned with them, and repeated the 
very words because of which they would stone 
Him, " I am the Son of God." In the minds of 
these Jews, therefore, " the Son of God " and 



172 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

" God " were the same. And Jesus does not dis- 
claim their inference: He rather acknowledges and 
emphasizes it. 

We get their view of the case in their court of 
inquiry, just before they handed Him over to Pilate. 
There He called Himself the Son of Man; and 

Luke 22: 66-71 they said, "Art thou, then, the Son of God?" 
In their thought, the two were one. And Christ 
confirmed their thought when He replied, " Ye say 
that I am." Well might they cry out, " What need 
we any further witnesses!" And we might say the 
same, in an humble sense. He plainly claimed 
that He was God: we need no further proof to 
establish it. And this claim was the basis of their 
charge before Pilate : " He made himself the Son 

John 19: 7. of God." They surely would not ask Pilate to 
crucify Him for claiming to be the Son of God in 
the sense that they might take that name to them- 
selves; or as we apply it, through Christ, to our- 
selves. What supreme nonsense, therefore, for any 
man to say that Christ is the Son of God only in a 
little higher degree than we are! It makes the 
charge of the Jews the folly of the ages. It bases 
the crucifixion on a universal fact — a fact for 
which any man, in the universe of time, might be 
nailed to the cross. And yet, that is the nonsense 
and the folly of those who deny the divinity of 
Christ — His claim to it. 

The crucifixion scene adds its testimony to the 
same truth. As He hung upon the Cross, they 

Matt. 27: 43. mocked Him: " He said, I am the Son of God." 



THE SON OF GOD. 173 

And when the centurion saw the earthquake, and 
those things that were done, he said, " Truly, this Matt. 27: 54. 
was the Son of God." It was not a son of God, 
such as we are by grace — it was God the Son that 
suffered and died there. And when those terrible 
scenes were past and Jesus again moved among His 
disciples, it was made a matter of record, that we 
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of John20: si. 
God ; and that believing we might have life through 
His name. Jesus tells us of His Sonship once 
more : it is comprised in His final commission, " Go 
ye, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing Matt. 28: 19. 
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and 
of the Holy Ghost." An equality is designated 
here: the terms are co-ordinate. If the Son were 
less than God ; so would be the Father and the Holy 
Ghost : if the Father is God ; so is the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. The rules of speech demand it: the 
context proves the truth of it. 

The Acts of the Apostles everywhere set forth 
the same. When Philip opened the Scripture to the 
chamberlain of Queen Candace, he said, " If thou Acts 8: 37. 
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest be bap- 
tized." And he said, " I believe that Jesus Christ 
is the Son of God." When Saul of Tarsus was 
converted, "Straightway he preached Christ in Acts 9: 20. 
the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." The 
Apostles went everywhere preaching Christ. They 
did not preach about a man : like Paul on Mars' Hill, 
they preached their God. And when they pro- 
claimed Christ as the Son of God, there could be 



174 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

but one meaning attached to that name: The Son 
of God is God the Son! Any other inference is an 
utter perversion of the truth for which they suffered, 
and an out-and-out rejection of the foundation 
principle of that which they taught. 

In his Epistles, St. Paul is equally definite. He 
writes with boundless confidence. His greeting to 
the Church at Rome gives plain evidence of the 
foundation of his hope : " Paul, a servant of Jesus 

Rom.i: 1-4. Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the 
Gospel of God, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our 
Lord, which was made of the seed of David according 
to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with 
power according to the spirit of holiness, by the re- 
surrection from the dead." The seed of David, the 
Son of God: the Human-divine One. He is not 
the seed of David by a bold figure, but according 
to fact. He is not the Son of God by a bold figure, 
but according to fact. The seed of David is man — 
as such, no more, no less : the Son of God is God — 
as such, no more, no less. In personal union, they 
they are the God-man, the eternal Human-divine 
One. 

The great Apostle to the Gentiles makes this 
personal union the basis of all he taught : it is im- 
plied everywhere. " The Son of God, Jesus 

11 cor. i: 19. Christ:" that was the name he preached. And 
to preach the name was to preach the nature. He 
did not separate them in thought : he did not con- 
found them. The names were disti-nct: so were 
the natures. But the unity is inviolate — the 
natures inseparable. And the divine was so com- 



THE SON OF GOD. 175 

plete, that the Apostle could say of Christ, what 
can be said of no mere man, " In him dwelleth coi.2:9. 
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." There is 
a sense in which God dwells in us and we in God; 
but that is not what St. Paul means here : he means 
the sum-total of the divine attributes : he means 
God in the fulness of the divine essence. In the man 
Jesus, God had His peculiar dwelling-place — a 
dwelling-place such as the soul has in the body; its 
fulness everywhere manifest; its fulness everywhere 
in living union and communion with the body — in- 
destructible, therefore inseparable ; vital, because the 
essential part of the united life. 

The beloved disciple, as we might expect, gets a 
lofty view of the Person of Christ. He speaks 
from experience: he records the things that have 
fallen under his eyes — the things of which he has 
perfect knowledge. Hence the positive tone, " We 
have seen and do testify that the Father sent uohn4:i4,i5 
the Son to be the Saviour of the world." And then 
he comes to the spiritual side — the side which rules 
out the judgment of men who have not the spirit 
of Christ, " Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is 
the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in 
God." In the same spirit and with like import, he 
closes the Epistle, " We know that the Son of God 
is come, and hath given us an understanding, i John 5 : 20. 
that we may know him that is true; and we are in 
him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This 
is the true God and eternal life." 

And this puts the Sonship of Christ before us 



176 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

in a light that sets the Word of God above the 
methods of the critic. The truth of Scripture is 
not a thing of outward test, aside from certain 
acknowledged principles of language and logical 
thought. It refuses to be judged according to the 
common standards of judgment. The man in 
whom God dwells and who dwells in God, that man 
confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 
And when he confesses Him to be the Son of God, 
he means that He is the true God and eternal life. 
As soon as a man doubts or denies the Sonship of 
Christ, we know by that very fact that the Spirit 
of God does not dwell in his heart, and that he is 
not capable of judging divine things: his world- 
wisdom cannot lay hold of the heavenly thought. 

The teacher, therefore, who exploits world 
theories by which to explain away the divine nature 
of Christ, should be shunned as one out of whose 
heart God has gone, and in whom there rules a 
spirit that is not of Christ. Jesus Himself said, 
John 7: 16. " My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me." 
The disciples could say the same. And filled with 
the Spirit of Christ, they preached Christ. And 
when they preached Christ, they preached the 
Godhead of Christ. Whoever, therefore, denies 
the Godhead of Christ, is not only anti-apostolic : he 
is anti-Christ. And so, we should pray as the Church 
teaches : " O Lord, save and defend thy Church 
and people from the power of those whom Thou 
hast not sent.*" 



IN HIS NAME. 177 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

IN HIS NAME. 



THE names of God are expressive of His attri- 
butes. His self-revelation, by specific titles, 
kept pace with the needs of the times. In the 
history of His people, He made Himself known 
according to the demands of each new event. And 
when the fulness of time was come, He had re- 
vealed Himself as the God who meets every possible 
condition of life. This marked the ripeness of the 
age: the world was ready for the last revelation — 
the revealing of the Godhead in the person of Jesus 
Christ, who, being the brightness of God's glory, 
and the express image of his person, and uphold- Heb. 1 : s. 
ing all things by the word of his power, when he 
had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the 
right hand of the majesty on high. And so, being 
set on the right hand of God in the heavenly places, 
He is far above all principality and might and Epb.. 1 : 21. 
dominion, and every name that is named, not only 
in this world, but also in that which is to come. No 
such honor belongs to man's name: it belongs to 
God and God alone. 

The Lord everywhere makes His name the pre- 
eminent one among His people. In His portrayal 
of the true prophet, He says, " He shall speak in Deut.18: 19. 
my name." When David sings of the mercies of 
God, he finds comfort in the promise, " In my name 



178 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

psaim 89: 24. shall his horn be exalted." When false 
prophets arose, the Lord pronounced a curse upon 
them because they used divination in His name — 

jer. H: 14-16. the deceit of their own hearts: He was jealous 
of His name. The universal nature of the Mes- 
sianic rule is clearly indicated by the prophet, when 
he speaks in the name of the Lord of Hosts : " From 

Mai. i: ii. the rising of the sun even unto the going down 
of the same, my name shall be great among the 
Gentiles." Everywhere in the Old Testament, the 
Lord holds His name above every name: every- 
where, the prophets represent themselves as speak- 
ing and acting in His name. 

And now, in the New Testament, there comes a 
new name that is above every name. It is the name 
of Him who speaks in His Father's name : and yet 
He speaks in His own name. It is the name of 
Him on whose vesture is written, " King of kings, 

Rev. 19:16. and Lord of lords" — the Chief est among ten 
thousand, the One altogether lovely. It is the 
name of Him who says, " I and my Father are one :" 
and who neither degrades God nor exalts Himself 
when He says it. It is the name of Him whose 
name in the final commission to the disciples is 
coupled with that of the Father and of the Holy 
Ghost, and in whose united name is administered 
the great regenerating rite. There can be no doubt, 
therefore, as to the place and the significance of 
that name. 

The Evangelist takes the word of prophecy and 
applies it to Christ:. he finds in Christ what history 



IN HIS NAME. 179 

sets before us as a great authenticated fact : " In 
his name shall the Gentiles trust." It is but the Matt. 12:21. 
fulfilment of that other prophecy: "The forces isa. eo: 5. 
of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." It could not 
be otherwise than that the disciples of Christ should 
set the name of their Master above every name : He 
taught them to do it. And so the beloved disciple, 
as he looked back upon the ministry of Christ, re- 
corded those words which declare His infinite might, 
with His name as the avenue of its exercise : " As 
many as received him, to them gave he power to John 1 : 12. 
become the sons of God, even to them that believe 
on his name." 

God gives spiritual gifts in His own name, not 
in the name of some creature. What He does in 
His own name is the evidence of His nature. An 
infinite gift implies an infinite name. And as 
Jesus gives sonship in His own name — which is out- 
side of the human province or power, He assumes 
God's prerogative. He gives a clear illustration of 
this fact, when He makes the statement, " Who- Luke 9: 48. 
soever shall receive this child in my name, receiveth 
me; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth him 
that sent me." We get a negative view of the 
same truth, with almighty power to indicate its 
source, when Jesus says, "There is no man Mark9:S9. 
which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly 
speak evil of me." Miracles are expressive of 
God's almightiness. Christ performed them in His 
own name; men performed them in Christ's name: 
almightiness, therefore, rests in Christ's name — 
it is His personal attribute. And he who has 



180 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

God's attribute — the infinity of it — he is true 
God. 

In bringing comfort to His disciples, Jesus put 
forward His own name as the name that should be 
the strength of their heart and their portion for 
evermore. How utterly hollow His words would 
be, if they were incapable of fulfilment: "Where 

Matt. 18: 20. two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them " — a guarantee of 
omnipotence and omnipresence, not through God, 
but attributes of His own nature and exercised in 
His own name. The same thought is made prom- 
inent when He says, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in 

John 14: is. my name, that will I do, that the Father may 
be glorified in the Son :" " Whatsoever ye shall ask 

John 16: 28. the Father in my name, he will give it you." 
There is no conflict in these promises : they are 
supplemental in their true inner sense. They are, 
in each case, God's promise; and He who makes 
them, by that very act, makes Himself equal with 
God. No prophet, no teacher, no moralist, no 
enthusiast, even, has ever told men to go to God 
in his name, giving them the assurance that God 
would hear them for his sake. Here, as elsewhere, 
the life of Jesus is a separated life. 

The divine nature of Christ, His equality with 
the Father, is further manifest when He gives that 

John 14 : 26. other promise, " But the Comforter, which is the 
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
he shall teach you all things and bring all things to 
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you." Here are three Persons; and each, by im- 



IN HIS NAME. 181 

plication, is the Almighty One : the Almighty Father 
sending the Almighty Spirit in the name of the 
Almighty Son to perform an almighty act. This 
declaration of St. John involves one of two things : 
It is either false; or it is an infallible witness that 
the name of Jesus is above every name. Those who 
deny the doctrine of the Trinity and, along with it, 
the divinity of Christ, brand the beloved disciple, 
therefore, with writing that which is false. It can 
not be set to the account of an ecstatic state that 
swayed his reason : the Fourth Gospel is too sane a 
treatise for such an inference. It cannot be claimed 
that he was filled with a superstitious awe: the 
Gospel he wrote cries out against such a charge. 
The detractors of Christ are driven, by the very 
logic of the case, to this alternative : John wrote that 
which is not true; or they claim that which is not 
true. It is not difficult for those who know the love 
of Christ and the power of His name in their hearts, 
to determine on which side the truth lies. 

And such was the almightiness of Jesus' name 
and so confident were men in its almightiness, that 
it was necessary to warn against its false use. 
Hence the words of doom which Christ pronounced 
against those who will claim, on the day of judg- 
ment, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Matt. 7 : 22,28 
thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? 
and in thy name done many wonderful works?" 
And then will come the answer, " I never knew you ; 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity." We have 
a sad example of this right in Apostolic times. 



182 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Acts 19: 13-16 When " certain of the vagabond Jews took upon 
them to call over them which had evil spirits, the 
name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by 
Jesus whom Paul preacheth ; the evil spirit answered 
and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who 
are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was, 
leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed 
against them." Wicked men and devils recognized 
the almightiness of that name: they fain would 
use it, with hypocritical intent, or to carry out their 
evil purposes. But God's power is in God's name 
only when it is used by God's appointment and in 
God's way. The same is true in the case of 
Christ's name. 

The saving might of Jesus' name is declared by 
the Evangelist as he closes the history of Christ: 

John 20: 3i. " These are written, that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that 
believing ye might have life through his name." 
Natural life is from God; so is spiritual life: but 
here we are promised life through Christ's name. 
The name of a heathen god is powerless to give 
life; there is no living creature by whose name is 
quickened the power to give life : the name of God 
alone can do it. Everyone acknowledges this to be 
a settled fact — except those who make spontaneous 
generation the god of all life. But the name of 
Christ is here set forth as the name through which 
we have life. The nature of God, therefore, belongs 
to His name. 

The almightiness of His name is again made 
manifest in the final promise : " In my name shall 



IN HIS NAME. 183 

they cast out devils; they shall speak with new Marki6-.i7,i8 
tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they 
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them : they 
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." 
These are almighty acts: God alone can perform 
them — or one who speaks and acts in God's name 
and according to God's promise. But Jesus gives 
this promise to His disciples : He gives it to them in 
His own name. He thus declares Himself to be the 
Omnipotent One. He says, in fact, " I am that I 
am; this is my name." 

And the almightiness of His name prevails, not 
only in material things — the healing might as ex- 
hibited in His own life and that of the Apostles ; but 
also in the things of the Spirit — the spiritual effect 
of the preaching of His name and in His name, 
upon men's hearts and lives. This is summarized 
in that closing discourse with the disciples, when 
He opened the eyes of their understanding, that 
they might understand the Scriptures : " Thus it is 
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer Luke 24: 46,47 
and to rise from the dead the third day; and 
that repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name." And so the entire process 
of renewal is the work of the Father, in the name of 
the Son, by the regenerating power of the Holy 
Ghost. 

When we come to distinctively Apostolic times, 
we find the same unchanging fact. On the day of 
Pentecost, so soon after Jesus was taken up and 
received out of their sight, the Apostles made the 



184 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

unvarying demand, with its unqualified promise, 

Acts 2: 88. "Repent and be baptized every one of you in 
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, 
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
No finite name could bring down this heavenly 
gift: it was the ascended Lord that would send it 
according to His promise. 

When Peter met that lame man at the Temple 
gate, he said, " In the name of Jesus Christ of 

Acts 8: 6. Nazareth, rise up and walk." The almighty act 
was performed by invoking the almighty name. 
And when he was called to account for it, he said, 

Acts 8: 18. " And his name, through faith in his name, hath 
made this man strong." When he was further 
questioned as to the authority and the name by 
which this work was wrought, the answer was, 

Acted: 10. " Be it known unto you all, that by the name of 
Jesus Christ of Nazarth, even by him doth this man 
stand here before you whole." The power of God, 
therefore, is in Christ's name — not as a mere chan- 
nel of its exercise, but as an inherent, an essential 
part of it. The power is in His name because the 
power is in His nature. 

The Apostles went everywhere preaching in the 
name of Christ, working wonders in His name. 
The sick were cured in the name of Christ; evil 
spirits were cast out in His name. They claimed 
no power: they would take to themselves no praise. 
In short, the great Apostle to the Gentiles declares 

Rom. 15: is. that he would not dare to speak of anything but 
what Christ had done through him to win the Gen- 
tiles. And so centered was his life upon the life of 



IN HIS NAME. 185 

Christ; and so determined was he that every life 
should be centered upon it, that he laid down the all- 
embracing rule, " Whatsoever ye do in word or Coi.3:i7. 
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving 
thanks to God and the Father by him." That covers 
every possible relation and activity of life: that 
makes Christ all and in all. 

The name of Jesus: what a place it holds in our 
lives! What an empty house our hearts would be, 
if His name were not written there! We sing in 
His name; we pray in His name; we bear the 
burdens of life in His name. The name that is 
above every name has the first place in our hearts, 
because it has the first place in God's covenant of 
grace. And the name of Jesus is worthy of a place 
in our hearts, only as we are confident and con- 
scious of the divinity that pertains to it. 

There are other than heart-tests : there is the un- 
failing test of fact. The divine nature of Christ's 
name is established by the divine acts that were 
performed in His name, as well as by the divine 
claims that He made for His name. He writes 
His name where none but God may write it; in the 
divine honor and power and glory which He 
ascribes to it, and which He claims as His own 
divine right. He does this, not in the spirit of 
arrogance or of human self-sufficiency, but with that 
humble quality of heart that signalizes an eternal 
possession and an inherent right to proclaim it — 
nay, a moral necessity to proclaim it, that men may 
have life through His name. 



186 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

And there is the cold logic of events : there is 
that deadly parallelism which is fatal to everything 
that is false. Take any passage of Scripture 
where some eternal gift is promised or some 
almighty act is performed in the name of Christ: 
how sublime in utterance; how supremely sublime 
in effect! But set some human name in the place 
of Christ's name, and the impossibility, the ab- 
surdity, the deceit, that underlie each promise, be- 
come at once apparent. The sublimity vanishes — 
a hollow emptiness supplants it : the awe-inspiring 
effect vanishes — a meaningless jumble of words is 
all that is left. The form is there; but the life is 
gone : the eye is there ; but the sparkle is gone : the 
heart is there; but the pulse is gone — nothing can 
thrill it into life. 

The name of Jesus ! Take that dear name out of 
Scripture, with all its saving significance; and 
nothing is left. The heart is desolate: the life is 
without love. There may be Roman law to regu- 
late conduct, and Greek art to refine it : it is but the 
power and polish of outward influence. But the 
name of Jesus goes to the heart: it gives the rule 
of love. And the love of Christ is the true refine- 
ment of the life. The name of Jesus is the 
power in our life by which we fulfil the law of love : 
the name of Jesus is the beauty of our life by which 
we are moulded into the life of love: the name of 
Jesus saves! 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 187 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BODY OF CHRIST. 



THE objective fact of Christ has had the prom- 
inent place in each preceding discourse. They 
all pointed the truth: The Life of Christ is a 
Separated Life. The view has been an individual 
one — it has considered Christ apart from all else. 
The relations that entered into it were incidental to 
His dealings with the men He met. The union of 
the human and divine to constitute the one Christ 
had specific treatment; but the relation of this one 
Christ to the kingdom He came to establish and the 
world He came to save, by the appointed means of 
grace, has had but a passing notice. To be silent 
here would be to leave out the essential point. It 
would leave Christ's work without a definite purpose 
— at least, without adequate means to effect it. 

The Lord Jesus Christ did not come into the 
world to found a school of philosophy for the intel- 
lectual regeneration of the race. He came to round 
out a history that was promised to patriarchs and 
proclaimed by prophets : He came into our life to 
carry out God's plan of salvation through His 
atoning merit. He taught the people; but His 
doctrine was not of the speculative sort: His words 
were spirit and life. Truth was His theme — Him- 
self its incarnation. And to implant truth in the 
inward parts was His divine purpose, next to the 



188 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

great sacrificial act. This truth was not scientific, 
not mathematical, not philosophic, not simply moral : 
it was the truth that saves. His life, as well as 
His death, dealt exclusively with that which saves: 
it all looked to men's hearts and lives. 

The religion of Christ is not an institution of 
outward relations and effects: it is not a masonry 
of moral principles : it is the fellowship of life. It 
touches the whole man in every part: it puts a new 
life into him and incorporates him into the Body of 
Christ. It makes men one in Christ, animates them 
with a common purpose, and unites them in a com- 
mon work. It is the realization of that High- 
priest prayer. " That they all may be one, as thou, 
John 17: 21-23 Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also 
may be one in us : I in them and thou in me ; that 
they may be made perfect in one." The fellow- 
ship of Christ's people, therefore, is, primarily, not 
one of outward rule but of life. It is more than 
Christ for us: it is Christ in us — Christ the Life 
of our life. 

As soon as Jesus entered upon the ministry of 
His life, He did mighty works. But there was no 
Herculean hand to display His might. It was like 
that unseen force in nature — silent, yet surely 
leading up to definite ends. Every work wrought 
by Christ was the outcome of an invisible omni- 
potence : physical strength, human or superhuman, 
had no place in His life — so different was He from 
the heroes of ancient date. His word had almighty 
power in it: when He spake, it was done. And 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 189 

by the almightiness of that word, He performed 
all His works of mercy and love. The Word of 
Christ — He did not preserve one jot or tittle of it: 
He did not grave it on Tables of Stone. He wrote 
but once — it was in the sand : the first breeze would 
erase it. The mere record of the fact is all that is 
left of it. He never told His disciples to write; 
until He reached the heavenly throne : then He sent 
words of warning as well as mesages of comfort 
to the Churches. And yet, He says, "Heaven Luke2i:S8. 
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away." His word is a living word: His living 
power abides in it. 

There is a definite plan to Christ's life. The 
manner in which He fed the multitude is a parable 
of His method of satisfying the spiritual wants of 
His people. He blessed the bread and brake it : He 
gave it to the disciples and they distributed it. He 
made choice of men who should take the Bread of 
Life and carry it to the multitude of earth's inhabi- 
tants, even to the uttermost parts. And the supply 
is sufficient for all people of all time. At His 
divine touch, the loaves and fishes multiply, now as 
then, in the hands of His disciples. The Apostles 
were brought into living contact with His life. 
They could say, "Christ, our Life." And coi.sm. 
with His words of life, His life became the living 
part of their life. They thus became the instru- 
ments of Christ to proclaim His truth and witness 
to His life. They were living Epistles, not only in 
what they were but in what they taught. 



190 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

If Jesus had remained on earth, the visible Head 
of His people, His work would have been a circum- 
scribed one. And so He gave His disciples the 

John id: 7. assurance, "It is expedient for you that I go 
away." Had He remained, the blessed privilege 
of contact with His life would have been denied to 
the vast majority of the human race. Moreover, 
the disciples could not realize the truth of His words 
to Pilate, " My kingdom is not of this world," until 
He should take His seat on the heavenly throne. 
The gift of the Holy Ghost meant more, even to 
them, than did the visible presence of their Master: 
it surely meant more to the world in all ages. The 
work of Christ was done — the earthly part of it. 
His Ascension would not destroy the goodly fellow- 
ship of the Apostles : it would cement it. The 
coming of the Holy Ghost would mould them into 
oneness of life: one in Christ, they would be one 
for Christ. Thus by the indwelling of the Spirit — 
His almighty power, through them, upon men's 
hearts and lives — three thousand were added to the 
little band of Twelve: and these continued stead- 
fastly in the Apostles' doctrine. They had one 
Lord, one Faith, one Baptism: they were a unit in 
worship and in life. They were the visible Com- 
munion of Saints. 

And now, the Church of the Apostles must do the 
work to which Christ had appointed it. The pro- 
mise was, "He shall bring all things to your remem- 
brance." And with what result? The Master had 

Mark 16: 15. said, " Go ye into all the world and preach the 
Gospel to every creature." And they went and 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 191 

preached everywhere. The Master had said, " Go ye, 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them Matt. 28:19. 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost." And they planted and watered 
the seed that saves : they became the bearers of the 
great personal message, " Repent and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for Acts 2: 38. 
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift 
of the Holy Ghost." The Master had said, 
"Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted John 20 : 23. 
unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are 
retained." And they went forth speaking absolu- 
tion in their declarations of grace; and delivering Acts 13 : 38. 
the evil-doer unto Satan for the destruction of icor. 5:4,5. 
the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Master had said, 
"This do in remembrance of me." And they Luke 22: 19. 
offered the life, the crucified and victorious life — 
the body given and the blood shed for the remission 
of sins — according to the institution of Christ. 
Thus from the day of Pentecost, the disciples con- 
tinued steadfastly, not only in the Apostles' doc- 
trine and fellowship, but also "in breaking of Acts 2: 42. 
bread, and in prayers :" they were confident that as 
often as they should eat that bread and drink 1 cor. 11 : 26. 
that cup, they would show the Lord's death till He 
come. And let it be distinctly noted that all these 
individual activities were not only in obedience to 
the commandment of Christ: they were equally the 
result of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. It was 
particularly under His guidance that the Church 
entered upon its appointed office : To preach the 



192 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Gospel, To remit and retain sins, To administer 
the Sacraments. Art, social activities, high-pres- 
sure methods, have neither spirit nor life. Word 
and Sacrament: these are the ordained means for 
the normal development of the Kingdom of Christ 
— nothing can take their place. 

The pure preaching of the Word, therefore, and 
the proper administration of the Sacraments are 
the distinctive marks of the Church of Christ. 
They are the instruments of the Holy Ghost through 
which He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies 
men, and preserves them in union with Jesus Christ 
in the true faith. Wherever these are, there is 
Christ. Christ, therefore, is with His Church as 
truly as He was with His disciples. Every little 
flock, with Word and Sacrament, has Christ in its 
midst ; for His promise is, " Where two or three 
Matt. 18: 20. are gathered together in my name, there am I in 
the midst of them." And He gives no assurance, 
no hope, to those who despise Word or Sacrament : 
their house is left unto them desolate. These little 
flocks of God's people, with a distinct congrega- 
tional life, are to be multiplied until they reach out 
into all kindreds and tongues and tribes ; so that 
the earth may be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea. It is through 
them that the Gospel is to be preached to every 
creature. 

A state of humiliation is appointed to the Church 
of Christ. Like her Lord, she gives her earthly 
life to humble service: like Him, she is meek and 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 193 

lowly in heart. " His visage was so marred more 
than any man, and his form more than the sons isa.52: 14. 
of men." The sin of the world bore heavily upon 
His life. He had no form nor comeliness; and isa.58:2. 
when men saw Him, there was no beauty that they 
should desire Him. More than once they laughed 
Him to scorn. So with His Church. The truth 
that calls for childlike trust; the Sacraments that 
reason treats with contempt or strips of significance : 
these none crave but the poor in spirit. The sim- 
plicity of the Church's service — in hymns and 
prayers and psalms of praise, in the confession of 
sins and the declaration of grace, in the ministra- 
tion of the message of divine love: the glories of 
these things — the comfort they give, the hope they 
inspire — are hid from the wise and the prudent: 
they are revealed unto babes. 

But the state of Christ's humiliation passed away 
and the state of His exaltation came. And the 
Church, too, shall rise up from the ashes at the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ. Her sackcloth laid aside, she shall 
be brought unto the King in raiment of needle- Psaim45:H. 
work: with gladness and rejoicing shall she enter 
into the King's palace. It doth not yet appear what 
she shall be: so glorious shall be her life; so exalted 
her estate. But her hour is not yet come. 

There is, indeed, a glory in the Church's life; but 
the natural man does not comprehend it. Nor is 
it necessary that he should comprehend it. There 
are invisible powers in nature — electricity, magnet- 



194 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

ism, gravitation : even the scientist knows them by 
their effects rather than in themselves. Must men, 
therefore, insist upon knowing and measuring the 
invisible unities that God has made essential to the 
true fellowship of the spiritual life — the inner one- 
ness of the Church with Christ! The mystery of 
godliness is marvellously great: not only that God 
was manifest in the flesh; but that the Church 
which He purchased with His blood is one with 
Him as well as one in Him. The relation is more 

Rom. 12 : 4,5. than intimate : it is essentially vital. As we have 
many members in one body; so we, being many, 
are one body in Christ. And of this body, Christ 
is the Head. The Church, therefore, is subject 

coi. i,i8. unto Christ. He loved it and gave Himself for 
it. He did this that He might sanctify and cleanse 
it by Word and Sacrament and make it " a glorious 

Eph. 5:23-32. Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such 
thing." And so vital is this relationship, that every 
member of the Church Invisible is a member of 
Christ's body and flesh and bones. Every one, 
therefore, who is not in living fellowship with 
Christ, is as dead as is the body from which the 
soul has gone. Every one who is a member of the 
body of Christ, has the life of Christ to fill him with 
all the fulness of God. 

The union is a mystical one : we cannot compre- 
hend it. It exists primarily between the individual 
believer and Christ. It unites all believers into one 
— their common faith in Christ making them one 
in Christ. And His life is vital to their life: His 
life is the life-principle of their life. What a 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 195 

union and communion: one with Christ; one in 
Christ! If we have this life, we can say with St. 
Paul, " I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: Gai.2:20. 
and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by 
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave 
himself for me." 

The Church: Christ its Head; its members, those 
who believe in Christ as the true God and eternal 
Life. The members in living union with Him — a 
union so vital, that apart from Him they have no 
spiritual life : the members in living union with each 
other, so that they dwell in the fellowship of life 
and of love. And this was made possible by God 
and Man becoming one in Christ. It is through this 
oneness of the two natures that He atones for sin 
and applies the renewing power of the Holy Ghost. 
Thus by union with Him who is the Saviour of 
the Body, the Church shall " grow up into him in Eph. 4 : 15,16. 
all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from 
whom the whole body fitly joined together and com- 
pacted by that which every joint supplieth, according 
to the effectual working in the measure of every 
part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying 
of itself in love." This is, indeed, a great mystery 
■ — Christ and His Church, one : in fellowship and in 
life, One! 

And how much that means for us! We are 
members of the Body of Christ; if so be that we 
have put on Christ. He is our glorious Head. His 
life by Word and Sacrament, gives us life: His life, 
by Word and Sacrament, keeps us alive. He has 



196 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

set these in the Church as the avenues of all union 
with Him, of all communion with Him, of all 
union and communion in Him. If we have passed 
from death unto life, we have the witness of the 
Word; we have the witness in our own hearts — 
God's Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that 
we are the children of God through Christ. And 
this conviction is fortified by the fact around which 
all Scripture circles : " God was manifest in the 
i Tim. 8:i6. flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, 
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, 
received up into glory." He who was thus received 
into glory, shall come again in glory to accept the 
Church as His Bride and take her home to dwell 
with Him in heavenly places. 



THE CONCLUSION. 197 



THE CONCLUSION. 

THE testimony of Christ and the witness of His 
Apostles furnish abundant proof, as the fore- 
going chapters indicate, that He was at once 
Human and Divine. The Faith of the Fathers, 
therefore, survives; because the Word of God sur- 
vives : " We believe and confess : That our Lord The Athan . 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; aslan Cree(L 
God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before 
the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His 
mother, born in the world ; Perfect God, and Perfect 
Man." This is the true Christian Faith: no one 
can be saved without it. And that is why we should 
so earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to 
the saints. 

There are those who would make it appear that 
this faith has come down from the child-age of our 
race: that a childlike credulity characterizes it: that 
in our age of light and learning, we are not to be 
led by the spectres of the past. The insinuation is 
satanic: it is therefore subtle. It is an appeal to 
human pride; besides, it is not true. Jesus Christ 
did not live in an age of myth: it was as truly 
historic as the one in which we live. In moral prin- 
ciple and social practice, it was as pure and noble 
as the age of which we make our boast. In point of 
intellect, it had master-minds that would measure 
up to the noblest product of our times. 



198 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

Away back in the very genesis of God's people, 
there were moral standards that eclipse our sub- 
limest thought. When Joseph said, " How can I 
do this great wickedness and sin against God," he 
expressed a moral principle which not one man in 
ten thousand has reached in this age of universal 
enlightenment, with moral ideas that claim to keep 
pace with it. When Paul said, " Let him that 
stole, steal no more ; but rather let him labor, work- 
ing with his hands the thing which is good, that he 
may have to give to him that needeth," he gave 
utterance to a principle which not one man in ten 
thousand has conceived, much less carried into prac- 
tice, in this age of noble beneficence. And so, 
throughout, with every moral principle of life: we 
have scarcely caught up to the lofty ideals of 
Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles. We are not, 
in a moral sense, the survival of the fittest: the 
most of us are not fit to survive. If we are, we 
must confess with St. Paul, " By the grace of God, 
I am what I am." 

Ours is a charitable age — charitable, along 
religious lines, in a very bad sense. The broad 
view — what a subtle enemy of truth and right ! The 
man who is so broad as to be charitable, in moral 
issues, toward every form of false doctrine, is him- 
self false at heart. The worst possible evil is that 
outward fairness which, at bottom, involves a false 
principle. Men will not tolerate it in the ordinary 
dealings of life. Mathematical truth comes down 
through the ages: two times two are four, the 



THE CONCLUSION. 199 

world over and in all time. And the man who 
would lower the standard by saying, " That comes 
down from the world's child-age, a legend in figures 
but no longer a fact:" that man would be shunned 
and exposed by every reputable person engaged in 
trade. 

Mathematical truth comes down through the ages ; 
moral truth comes down through the ages; saving 
truth comes down through the ages. Broadminded 
men will scorn the man who would lower the stan- 
dard of business principles ; they will cut loose from 
the man who would lower the standards of moral 
excellence. They are very narow and exclusive 
along these two great lines that affect business and 
social interests. Straight is the gate and narrow 
is the way that leadeth into business and social life! 
But these same lofty-minded men will encourage 
and cultivate those who strive to undermine every 
fundamental principle of the Gospel that touches 
upon the issue of everlasting life. And they brand 
as narrow and uncharitable and bigoted any man who 
dares to stand by the principles that were taught by 
Christ and His Apostles, and whose acceptance is the 
absolute essential that men may become partakers of 
the inheritance with the saints in light. The spirit 
is not one of broadness : there is nothing noble about 
it. It is a virtual denial of the saving merit of 
Christ. 

This so-called broadness of view, so popular in 
our times, is Satan's device. He would puff men 
up with the vain conceit, " Ye shall not die ; ye shall 



200 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

be as gods." He would have men know good and 
evil as Eve knew them. If some one comes along 
with a new faith — some old heresy painted in 
modern hues — the spirit of evil inspires the thought : 
It will do no harm to hear it; besides, it will show 
that the Christian spirit is a tolerant one. And 
so, the most destructive teachings are poured into 
men's minds and hearts, to the unsettling of their 
faith and the poisoning of their spiritual lives. 

The most of men stand in dread of deadly dis- 
ease: they would not expose themselves or their 
children to it. These darling bodies dare not come 
in contact with microbes. The most of men rejoice 
in the careful workings of the pure- food law : no 
adulterations may defile their delicate palates — it 
might endanger their lives. And the most of men, 
too, are strong advocates of the old heathen prin- 
ciple, " Touch not, taste not, handle not," in the 
case of anything that might debauch the physical 
man and thereby undermine the moral nature. 
They are wonderfully exclusive and prohibitive 
along physical lines. 

But they will expose themselves to all kinds of 
soul-destroying heresies — like fools, rushing in 
where angels fear to tread : they will drink into their 
spirits that which breaks down faith, leads to the 
denial of Christ, and works the destruction of that 
Church which He established as the channel of 
saving grace. They will do all this, and much 
more, with the lofty conceit that they are broad and 
liberal and free from sectarian taint. In point of 
fact, they are either self-deceived — blind to the 



THE CONCLUSION. 201 

awful enormity of their sin and the terrible conse- 
quences that may follow it ; or they are, at heart, the 
enemies of the Cross of Christ. 

Where does the trouble lie? Lack of faith: lack 
of keen conviction as to the worth of eternal veri- 
ties : lack of confidence in the truth and promise of 
Christ: lack of love for the Lord who bought them 
with a price. No man of noble nature will listen to 
a person who perverts or denies what some one, dear 
to his heart, has set forth as truth and defended 
with his life. But men will bow and scrape, and 
bid God speed, to those who pervert or deny every 
great essential truth that Christ taught. It marks 
a positive decline in faith, a letting go of the 
anchorage of hope, a loss of Christian love. It 
means that men are adrift on the ocean of free 
thought — the sport of every evil breeze. 

Where the truth of God fills the heart, and the 
love of Christ inspires the life, there will be no 
desire, much less effort, to run after strange gods — 
the vaporings of Christless cults, the attractive 
settings of a perverted science, in particular, the 
misrepresentations of what Christ taught and the 
false assumptions based upon it. It is not intended 
here to disparage the deductions of a true science 
— the reasonings of men who see God back of 
nature, and who draw from nature truths that sub- 
stantiate, to their minds, the mysteries that shroud 
the origin and outcome of the physical universe. 
There can be no conflict between Revelation read 
aright and Nature read aright. It is the dogmatism 
of an atheistic science, with its gratuitous postulates, 



202 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

against which the Christian must sternly set His 
face. He must bring all science and philosophy, in 
so far as they reach into the realm of religion, up 
to the test of that elder day, " What saith it of 
Christ?" And if it contradicts a fundamental 
principle of the Gospel of Christ, it must be cast out 
as subversive of all true development along scientific 
as well as religious lines. And he who is deceived 
thereby is not wise. 

Truth is fixed; it is uncompromising; it is nar- 
row, if you please. It will not bend; it will not 
stretch : it is settled and straight. It is not unlike 
a law of nature — a fixed thing outside of us, not a 
changing opinion or subjective sentiment within us. 
Like the Lord who gave it, it is the same yesterday, 
to-day, and for ever. In the counsels of eternity, 
God planned to redeem man by sending His Son 
into the world to seek and to save that which was 
lost. In the fulness of time, Christ came as the 
God-man and reconciled God to man by His death 
upon the Cross. And the application of redemption, 
through the atoning merit of Christ, is now going 
on by the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. He that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: he that 
believeth not the Son shall not see life. He who 
says, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life " — 
it is He who also says, " No man cometh unto the 
Father but by me." 

Our poor sin-stained lives : we know what they 
are ! We know it by sorrowful experience ; we know 
it by the revelation of God's will and grace. And 



THE CONCLUSION. 203 

that God should come down in the person of His 
eternal Son and take upon Himself our nature, so 
that by His atoning merit, He might lift us up and 
make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus — this transcends our sublimest thought. God 
stooping to our estate to answer the demands of 
divine justice and fulfil the law of divine love : it is 
beyond the reach of reason; faith alone can attain 
unto it. 

And this faith is not blind acceptance, with 
credulity to inspire it. The harmonious testimony 
of Scripture creates the unwavering conviction, " I 
know that my Redeemer liveth." And every inci- 
dent, from God's eternal purpose as revealed 
through Prophets and Apostles to the completed 
historical facts of the Christ-life, is so wrought into 
the great fabric of saving events, that part fits to 
part with an exactness that proclaims its divine 
origin and assures its saving end. So certain are 
we that we are built into this structure of redeeming 
love and grace — the life of Christ for us, the life of 
Christ in us — that we can assume the triumphant 
tone of the Apostle : " I am persuaded that neither 
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God which is in 
Jesus Christ our Lord." 

What, then, should be the prayer that goes up 
from every faithful pastor's heart? Even that of 
St. Paul : " I bow my knees unto the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in 



204 THE SEPARATED LIFE. 

heaven and earth is named, that he would grant 
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be 
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner 
man : that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; 
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be 
able to comprehend with all saints, what is the 
breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to 
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, 
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abund- 
antly above all that we ask or think, according to 
the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in 
the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, 
world without end. Amen." 



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